The University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s patenting arm won an appeal Tuesday in federal court against Canadian drug company Xenon.
The lawsuit brought by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation dealt with how Xenon handled patent rights to an enzyme that can lower cholesterol levels in the human body.
Researchers at the university discovered the enzyme in 1999 and two years later the research foundation licensed the technology to Xenon, which partially sponsored the work. The foundation gave Xenon an exclusive license to commercialize the discovery and market any resulting products in exchange for a share of the profits.