Vanderbilt and ICOS have been locked in an inventorship dispute for several years over patent rights to tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis. The University argues that its scientists should be listed as inventors on the patents because they provided provided the building-blocks that Glaxo used in its discovery of tadalafil. (ICOS now holds the patent rights).
The district court ruled against Vanderbilt – holding that the Vanderbilt researchers could not be inventors because they did not have an independent understanding of the "complete compound claimed." On appeal, the Federal Circuit rejected that misinterpretation of the law of joint inventorship, but affirmed the final holding based on its conclusion that Vanderbilt had not provided clear-and-convincing evidence that it contributed to the invention.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Joint Inventorship: Federal Circuit Denies Vanderbilt’s Claim to Cialis Patent Rights - Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)
Vanderbilt Univ. v. ICOS Corp. (Fed. Cir. 2010)
