The University of South Florida filed a federal lawsuit against a California pharmaceutical company, over a 2012 settlement agreement ending a large lawsuit over Alzheimer’s research patents.
The school contends in its June 30 lawsuit that CoMentis Inc. of South San Francisco agreed in 2012 to pay $450,000 as part of a years-long legal dispute brought from the Alzheimer’s Institute of America (AIA), and involving Eli Lilly, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, and the University of Pennsylvania.
But CoMentis never paid, they contend in the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
“CoMentis has filed to make the required contingent payment and has indicated in writing to USF that it does not intend to do so,” the lawsuit says. “Those writings make it clear that CoMentis at no time intended to honor its obligations under the Settlement Agreement.”
The university is seeking the $450,000, plus attorney’s fees and costs, the court documents show.
The initial litigation was brought in 2010 by the Alzheimer’s Institute of America against several of the companies. At the heart of the lawsuits were four patents for mouse mutations, nucleic acid combinations, and other tools to study the brain disease, developed by Michael J. Mullan, a USF researcher, according to the court documents.
The AIA had claimed that Mullan had assigned the patents to the Institute – but the court found that since the scientist was an employee of the school, “USF and not Dr. Mullan had an ownership interest in the Asserted Patents under Florida law,” according to the filing.
CoMentis and USF both did not return messages requesting comment on the latest court filing.
All the other defendants who signed settlements in 2012 paid their amounts due – totaling more than $1 million, according to the USF filing.
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
