Court Determines that University of Pittsburgh and Artecel Have Sole Rights to Adipose-Derived Stem C...(p The adipose stem cells were discover...)

The adipose stem cells were discovered and worked on extensively by Drs. Katz and Llull at Pittsburgh. Dr. Hedrick and the other UC scientists subsequently followed their work.

The inventorship litigation was filed by Pittsburgh in September, 2004, following and as a result of two petitions filed in the Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO"). Prior to these petitions to the PTO, both the Pittsburgh inventors (Drs. Katz and Llull) and Dr. Hedrick and the UC scientists had initially been listed on the patent application. Then, despite the seminal and prior work done by Drs. Katz and Llull, Dr. Hedrick and UC filed petitions to the PTO both before the issuance of this important composition-of-matter patent, and again after its issuance, seeking to have Drs. Katz and Llull removed as inventors, and to have only Dr. Hedrick and other UC scientists listed as inventors on the patent. Following these petitions to the PTO, Pittsburgh filed the inventorship litigation to defend against and reject the ongoing efforts to have Drs. Katz and Llull stripped from the patent, and to have an inventorship determination made removing Dr. Hedrick and the other UC scientists from the patent.

The inventorship litigation involved extensive documentary discovery and deposition testimony, expert witnesses, and documentary evidence and testimony at trial by Drs. Katz and Llull, by Dr. Hedrick and all of the other UC researchers listed on the patent, as well as other witnesses. In February 2007, the Court issued an important interim ruling construing the disputed patent claim terms in accordance with the definitions proposed by Artecel's licensor, Pittsburgh, and not Cytori's licensor UC. In March, 2007, Pittsburgh then filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on the inventorship issue of the case. During the summer of 2007, while the Motion was pending, UC sought again, for the third time, to have the PTO remove the Pittsburgh scientists Drs. Katz and Llull as inventors, without an
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