University Wins Patent Fight Involving Potentially High Financial Stakes

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Emory receives permanent injunction against infringement by defunct biomedical firm and imprisoned former corporate officer

R. Robin McDonald
Fulton County Daily Report
August 11, 2008

Emory University has won a patent fight with a defunct metro Atlanta biomedical firm and a former corporate officer who is now serving a federal prison sentence for securities fraud.

In an order handed down July 24, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. granted Emory's motion for summary judgment in the case. In doing so, Thrash upheld patents that Emory has secured over the past decade for an anti-microbial agent impervious to water that can shield hard surfaces from contamination by weapons-grade biological viruses and bacteria.

Thrash also upheld a court order issued earlier this year barring defendant Timothy C. Moses and the firm, Nova Biogenetics Inc. -- of which Moses was formerly executive vice president and director of business development -- from infringing the patents. Nova was dissolved in May. A federal jury convicted Moses in October 2005 of securities fraud and perjury. He is now serving a 78-month prison sentence and has been ordered to pay $1.65 million in restitution.

Even though Nova is no longer infringing the biomedical patents that are the subject of the litigation and Moses is in prison, Thrash noted that a permanent injunction will protect Emory from any future infringement "where the infringing company has such a questionable reputation."