UWA v Gray - The End?

Is this the final chapter in the UWA v Gray saga?

The University of Western Australia says it will have less money to fund research as a result of a court ruling that allowed a former staff member to keep his $98 million stake in a research company.

The High Court today refused UWA's bid to appeal a long running case involving former professor Bruce Gray, who developed a cancer treatment technology during his time there.

That technology is being developed by Sirtex Medical, a company founded by Dr Gray.

UWA tried to claim the profits from various cancer treatments developed by Dr Gray, and others, while he was an employee and his 29.5 per cent stake in Sirtex (valued today about $98 million), as it owned the intellectual property.

In September, the full bench of the Federal Court upheld a 2008 decision by Justice Robert French, which found in Dr Gray's favour and awarded him costs. UWA first launched legal proceedings in 2004.

The UWA v Gray case has generated a lot of publicity, with academic institutions worried they may no longer be able to claim ownership of much of the IP created by academic staff.

But the sky is not falling down. The "take-home" for institutions in this case is that many of them need to sharpen up their acts. In many cases the academic policies of institutions relating to IP and who owns that IP are either unclear, are improperly implemented, or are simply not properly incorporated into employment contracts and other documents.