Attorneys for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation recently appealed a court ruling that said the organization owed Washington University $32 million.
In November, the U.S. District Court in Delaware ruled that WARF pay nearly $32 million to Washington University after the university sued WARF over a dispute about a joint pharmaceutical patent.
According to the court ruling, UW-Madison’s patent-licensing arm actively concealed information from another university about their shared patent, misled its research partner about the patent’s true financial value and kept 99 percent of the patent’s royalties to itself.
WARF is a large contributor to UW-Madison, supplying the university with $67.2 million dollars in the 2018 fiscal, according to university records. This means WARF’s yearly donation represents nearly two times the court-ordered payment they could be responsible for.
