The George Finley Bovard building on the campus of USCWIKIMEDIA, BRION VIBBERThe legal dispute between the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), is showing no signs of resolution. Last month (August 24), a San Diego Superior Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction that would force USC to cede control of a multi-million-dollar Alzheimer’s project that a former UCSD researcher took with him when he moved institutions. And as the two sides await the formal court order granting the injunction, USC countersued UCSD for trying to intimidate researchers who also wanted to leave UCSD for USC with principal investigator Paul Aisen, among other allegations.
“The University of Southern California’s cross-complaint is fundamentally dishonest,” UCSD said in a statement. “It is a collection of misstatements and outright falsehoods designed to distract from a singular truth: While he was on the faculty at UC San Diego, Dr. Paul Aisen, aided and abetted by his future employer USC, illegally seized control of data and computer systems that belong to UC San Diego as the administrator of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS).”
In its countersuit, USC is claiming that UCSD tried to force Aisen to sign an oath of loyalty prior to his departure from UCSD to USC in June. The suit also alleges that UCSD defamed Aisen by telling pharmaceutical industry sponsors of ADCS that Aisen had committed crimes and was ...
