Stanford v. Roche (2009)

Stanford v. Roche (2009) was a Supreme Court case clarifying patent rights for university research. Stanford University and the University of California (UC) both conducted research with a biotech company, Gilead. UC had an agreement giving itself rights to inventions but didn't assign those rights to the university, while Stanford had a strict policy that inventions belong to the university. The Court ruled that UC, not Stanford, held the rights to the invention because UC’s agreements with researchers gave it those rights, regardless of Stanford’s policies. This decision emphasized the importance of clear contractual agreements on patent ownership.