U.S.: UC Davis settles lawsuit with two strawberry breeders - FreshFruitPortal.com

U.S.: UC Davis settles lawsuit with two strawberry breeders

More News Top Stories
U.S.: UC Davis settles lawsuit with two strawberry breeders

A long-running dispute between the University of California, Davis, and two strawberry breeders over intellectual property rights has been settled, according to Courthouse News.

On Friday the university settled a lawsuit against two scientists who quit UC Davis and began developing new strawberry varieties under a new start-up company.

California Berry Cultivars (CBC) agreed to give UC Davis the strawberry plants it bred from the schoolā€™s unpatented varieties, and agreed that the school owns them, according to the settlement reached Friday.

CBC also agreed that the university owns the unpatented strawberry varieties developed in UC Davisā€™ strawberry breeding program, where company founder and defendant Doug Shaw invented numerous popular strains before retiring in 2013.

They also will forfeit US$2.5 million in royalty payments they stand to collect from the university for work they did at UC Davis, according to The Sacramento Bee.

However, the pair can reportedly continue using some of the strawberry plants they developed at UC Davis.

Jurors in a San Francisco Federal Court sided with the university in May, although Federal Judge Vince Chhabria said both parties had conducted themselves "inappropriately".

Most California strawberries - the stateā€™s fifth most valuable crop - come from strains Shaw and his research partner Kirk Larson developed at UC Davis.

In 2016 Shaw told administrators he wanted to start a private breeding company to license the strawberries he and Larson had invented, develop new varieties from them and pay the school royalties, Courthouse News reported.

UC Davis reportedly rejected Shawā€™s proposal after initially expressing interest, and sued him, Larson and CBC for conversion and patent infringement.

The story said it claimed the men took its strawberry varieties after the school refused to license them and used them to breed new ones for CBC.

Photo: www.shutterstock.com

www.freshfruitportal.com

Subscribe to our newsletter