University of Stolen Colleagues - Fight On!

Colleges & Universities University of Southern California
8

I read the complaint and have the following comments:

  1. There are two private company contracts in addition to at least two grants involved.
  2. They all relate to and provide funding for the relevant research.
  3. Dr. Aisen was a signatory to the private contracts and one of the grants. He's not a named party, but under contracts law that doesn't matter. He's got rights and obligations under the contracts. That applies to the one grant as well. His duties can't be delegated.
  4. Under the contracts, both companies can terminate the agreements if he leaves. Under one of the grants, the grantor may transfer the grant to another institution if Dr. Aisen leaves, subject to UCSD's release. It's clear he's an integral part of the grants and contracts.
  5. The data are jointly owned by and belong to UCSD and the companies. UCSD gets first publication rights. NIH and the other grantor retain no license in the data. Dr. Aisen has no license or other ownership interest in the data; however he has a boatload of obligations under all agreements. He also has regulatory obligations as the principal investigator.
  6. The data under one of the grants must be shared with a global Alzheimer's computer network managed by USC's Dr. Toga.
  7. The NIH grant is part of a larger award to a consortium of schools conducting similar or related research, including USC.
  8. UCSD's lead lawyer at Crowell and Moring is a USC (BS) graduate.
  9. There is no mention whether Dr. Aisen has a separate and related contract with UCSD.

IMO, based on the above, the two companies will or should terminate the contracts. They will be partially reimbursed under the contracts and will follow Dr. Aisen to USC. The NIH and other grantor likely will follow him too and UCSD will release him. UCSD will have access to the data and Dr. Aisen and his team must assist UCSD in such access. He gets a limited license because he’s a beneficiary of the data, which must be shared. But he has no first publication rights in the data. The grants are reset once the original contracts and grants are terminated or amended. In short, Dr. Aisen will be forced to turn over the data to UCSD, subject to his regulatory requirements.