Poll: Supreme Court Favors Roche in HIV Patent Dispute: Do You Agree?

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The Supreme Court sided with Roche Molecular Systems over Stanford University in a patent dispute for an HIV testing kit that uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. Dr Mark Holodniy, a fellow at Stanford University and inventor of the PCR technology, was assigned by the university to conduct research at Cetus.

The Supreme Court sided with Roche Molecular Systems over Stanford University in a patent dispute for an HIV testing kit that uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. Dr Mark Holodniy, a fellow at Stanford University and inventor of the PCR technology, was assigned by the university to conduct research at Cetus. While there, he signed a contract assigning any inventions arising from his time there to Cetus; he signed a similar agreement with Stanford. Roche acquired Cetus’s rights to the test and developed and commercialized a widely used kit; Stanford sued for patent infringement.

Stanford argued that Dr Holodniy could not assign rights to Cetus due to the Bayh-Dole Act, which deals with intellectual property arising from federally funded research.

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