Don't Walk

UC San Diego won a major legal battle Friday against USC when a judge ruled that control of a landmark project on Alzheimer's disease belongs to the La Jolla school. The decision addressed the heart of a lawsuit that has gained international attention since UC San Diego filed it early this month, largely because it's rare for such disagreements in the academic world to reach the courtroom. 

The dispute pits UC San Diego, a research powerhouse, against USC, a well-heeled institution seeking to bolster its biomedical research efforts and extend its reach to San Diego… Left unresolved Friday was UC San Diego's request for monetary damages based on its accusations that USC, Dr. Paul Aisen and other defendants conspired to illegally transfer the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study to the Los Angeles-based university. Aisen resigned in June from UC San Diego, where he had overseen the study since 2007, to become founding director of an Alzheimer's institute that USC was establishing in the Sorrento Valley neighborhood. In recent weeks, the two sides have argued about who owns the database for the $100-million nationwide project. UC San Diego, which has overseen the study for nearly a quarter of a century, said it still retains the government funding — an assertion backed by the National Institutes of Health…

Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0725-uc-sandiego-20150725-story.html

 

The lesson? If you’ve got a big grant, don’t walk away:

Or at least, call your lawyer first.