Patent Law

Gunasekera smokes Ohio University at CA6 on due process claim

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The Sixth Circuit court disagreed with the lower court on just about every point. The three-judge panel determined that Gunasekera had presented sufficient evidence to argue that graduate faculty status ? which Ohio University had never before revoked or suspended ? did indeed represent a property interest, alleging that he had lost a summer research stipend and a diminished teaching load. (The professor?s lawyer, John Marshall, said in an interview Thursday that he would ?build a strong record at trial showing that graduate faculty status is a ?concrete benefit that?s of great value? to Gunasekera, because ?with no graduate faculty status, grad students don?t want to work in your labs because you can?t be their adviser.")

The Ohio University folks would have been well-advised to study the case of San Filippo and Rutgers University. But they apparently didn't.

See previous IPBiz post,
Flipping Filippo, Batman, Gunasekera files federal suit against Ohio U./officials [IPBiz wrote in 2006: One of the first hurdles for a 1983 plaintiff is show plaintiff was deprived of a constitutionally-protected PROPERTY INTEREST without due process.]

Ohio U and SIU seem to be in a contest for dumbest university administrators.

Full post as published by IPBiz on January 09, 2009 (boomark / email).