Eleventh Amendment barred joinder of University of Texas to infringement suit

摘要

The Eleventh Amendment barred the joinder of The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (UT) as an involuntary plaintiff to a patent infringement suit brought by Gensetix against Baylor College of Medicine and other defendants, the federal district court in Houston has decided. Furthermore, Gensetix, as the licensee of the asserted patents, did not have standing to assert infringement claims against the defendants without UT because UT retained substantial rights in the patents. In addition, joinder of UT was necessary under Rule 19. The court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Gensetix’s state law claims (Gensetix, Inc. v. Baylor College of Medicine, December 10, 2018, Hanen, A.).