4 ms·

Researcher sues Harvard for drug royalties

55 points by hatmatrix 9y ago

HarryHirsch 9y ago
More details including the documents at Chemjobber: http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2017/05/harvard-matt-shair-being-sued-by-former.html http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2017/05/harvard-matt-shair-be... The bad labour market has paradoxically an effect of encouraging lawsuits. When previously you'd have bailed quickly, nowadays you hang on to your job and collect kompromat.
- cavanasm 9y ago
  Somewhat confusing bit brought up by this blog post: it claims the previous similar case (grad student Matt Charest suing for royalties on a patent he worked extensively on but was cut out of) brought by this lawyer was a failure, while the source article mentions Harvard settled that case out of court on "mutually beneficial terms". I guess the blog post may be referring to more specific claims in that case that the PhD advisor had a role to look out for the student's best interest, and by cutting the student out of the patent, the advisor was going against that (the court said the advisor had no obligation to look out for the student's financial interest). The student still got paid, although the amount is secret.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Grad student exploited and advisor reaps the credit? That's got to have been a complete surprise to everybody involved. /s
- ska 9y ago
  It what sense is that "kompromat"? It sounds more like straight forward fraud, at least if the article is accurate.
MengerSponge 9y ago
What a mess. That said, I'd love to see their lab notebooks! There's a reason you document the parties who were present. For my fellow junior scientists, remember that keeping good lab records protects you from predatory PIs and from accusations of malfeasance. I've used both ELog and a numbered paper notebook. Elog is nice because it's indexed and searchable, but I appreciate the ability to think through a problem as I write it out long-hand. http://midas.psi.ch/elog/ http://midas.psi.ch/elog/
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
easilyBored 9y ago
So Harvard paid the 35% share but didn't allocate it properly--if the lawsuit is telling the truth. Looks like there are a lot of ways to screw people, or ways where people feel like they're getting screwed. Joining patents is one of them because you have to value the contribution of each patent to the mix https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i11/Royalties-suit-against-Harvard-moves.html https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i11/Royalties-suit-against-H...

55 points by hatmatrix 9y ago

More details including the documents at Chemjobber: http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2017/05/harvard-matt-shair-being-sued-by-former.html http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2017/05/harvard-matt-shair-be... The bad labour market has paradoxically an effect of encouraging lawsuits. When previously you'd have bailed quickly, nowadays you hang on to your job and collect kompromat.

cavanasm 9y ago
Somewhat confusing bit brought up by this blog post: it claims the previous similar case (grad student Matt Charest suing for royalties on a patent he worked extensively on but was cut out of) brought by this lawyer was a failure, while the source article mentions Harvard settled that case out of court on "mutually beneficial terms". I guess the blog post may be referring to more specific claims in that case that the PhD advisor had a role to look out for the student's best interest, and by cutting the student out of the patent, the advisor was going against that (the court said the advisor had no obligation to look out for the student's financial interest). The student still got paid, although the amount is secret.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Grad student exploited and advisor reaps the credit? That's got to have been a complete surprise to everybody involved. /s
ska 9y ago
It what sense is that "kompromat"? It sounds more like straight forward fraud, at least if the article is accurate.

MengerSponge 9y ago

What a mess. That said, I'd love to see their lab notebooks! There's a reason you document the parties who were present. For my fellow junior scientists, remember that keeping good lab records protects you from predatory PIs and from accusations of malfeasance. I've used both ELog and a numbered paper notebook. Elog is nice because it's indexed and searchable, but I appreciate the ability to think through a problem as I write it out long-hand. http://midas.psi.ch/elog/ http://midas.psi.ch/elog/

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

easilyBored 9y ago

So Harvard paid the 35% share but didn't allocate it properly--if the lawsuit is telling the truth. Looks like there are a lot of ways to screw people, or ways where people feel like they're getting screwed. Joining patents is one of them because you have to value the contribution of each patent to the mix https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i11/Royalties-suit-against-Harvard-moves.html https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i11/Royalties-suit-against-H...