Supreme Court Rules in Stanford University v. Roche

On June 6, 2011, The Supreme Court issued its opinion in this matter. The syllabus appears here.

On November 1, 2010 the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the Stanford University v. Roche Molecular et al. case.  This case is a patent infringement lawsuit brought against Roche involving three Stanford patents for monitoring the effectiveness of HIV treatments that were developed with federal funding through the National Institutes of Health.  In the course of the litigation it was discovered that one of the Stanford researchers signed a "Visitor Confidentiality Agreement" (VCA) at a company that was later acquired by Roche.  The VCA purported to assign all of the Stanford researcher's patent rights in anything developed "as a consequence" of the time he spent at the company.  The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that this assignment was effective to transfer the Stanford researcher's rights to Roche resulting in the dismissal of the case.  The issue on which  the Supreme Court granted review is whether the Federal Circuit's ruling is in violation of the Bayh-Dole Act, which regulates the ownership and transfer of patent rights in technology resulting from federal funding.  The Office of the Solicitor General of the United States filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting Stanford's position as did over 40 major research universities and several university associations such as the Association of American Universities, Association of American Medical Colleges, Association of Public Land Grant Universities, Council on Government Relations and Association of University Technology Managers.  The Supreme Court issued a decision for this case on June 6, 2011.

The key pleadings in the case are as follows:
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Decision (September 30, 2009)
Petition for a Writ of Certiorari (March 22, 2010)
Brief Amici Curiae of WARF, et al. (April 23, 2010)
Brief Amici Curiae of AAU, et al. (April 26, 2010)
Brief Amicus Curiae of MIT (April 26, 2010)
Roche Opposition Brief (May 26, 2010)
Stanford Reply Brief (June 5, 2010)
Stanford Invitation (September 2010)
Stanford Brief (December 16, 2010)
Brief Amicus Curiae of Alexander M. Shukh, Ph.D. (December 21, 2010)
Brief Amicus Curiae of United States (December 23, 2010)
Brief Amicus Curiae of American Intellectual Property Law (December 23, 2010)
Brief Amicus Curiae of National Venture Capital Association (December 23, 2010)
Brief Amicus Curiae of BayhDole25, Inc. (December 23, 2010)
Brief Amicus Curiae of Birch Bayh (December 23, 2010)
Brief Amicus Curiae of John Sutton (December 23, 2010)
Brief Amici Curiae of Association of American Universities, et al. (December 23, 2010)
Roche Brief (January 25, 2011)
Brief Amici Curiae of American Association of University Professors, et. al. (February 1, 2011)
Brief Amicus Curiae of Biotechnology Industry Organization (February 1, 2011)
Brief Amici Curiae of Intel Corporation, et al. (February 1, 2011)
Brief Amicus Curiae of Intellectual Property Owners Association (February 1, 2011)
Brief Amicus Curiae of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (February 1, 2011) U.S. Supreme Court Decision (June 6, 2011)