UGA, former pharmacy professor agree to pay $300,000 to settle lawsuit

The University and a former professor in the College of Pharmacy have agreed to pay $300,000 to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to settle a civil lawsuit nearly five years after it was first filed in federal court.

The settlement agreement pitting former professor Flynn Warren Jr., the University and the Board of Regents against the NABP involved accusations of copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. In the agreement signed by the parties on April 20, UGA and Warren consented to several conditions, including promising to no longer copy or disseminate NABP copyrighted material and ensure an attorney in the University Office of Legal Affairs will monitor this compliance.

WARREN

As part of the agreement NABP voluntarily dismissed with prejudice its lawsuit against current pharmacy professor Henry Cobb, who was accused of copyright infringement in the suit. The lawsuit accused the professors of distributing copyrighted test questions which forced the pharmacy licensure exam to be suspended nationwide for more than two months.

The controversy began in August 2007, when the NAPB filed a case against Warren and the Regents for copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract. As a pharmacy professor at the University until his retirement one month before the case was filed, Warren taught a review course for two pharmacy exams the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination, or NAPLEX, and the Georgia Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination that was open to students at the University as well as other institutions.

In 2007, NABP became aware of facts suggesting that the now former University faculty member obtained and distributed, at the University and at other colleges of pharmacy where he taught a board review course, actual or closely paraphrased questions from the NAPLEX and MPJE which allegedly infringed on the NABP ownership rights in the examinations, the University wrote in a statement released Monday, as required by the settlement. Upon learning of this, the College of Pharmacy immediately discontinued use of the disputed materials and took numerous specific precautions to ensure that such materials would not be used in future pharmacy board review courses at the University of Georgia.In the settlement, the University has affirmed its commitment to work with the NABP to ensure respect for the NABPs rights and for the confidentiality of the NABP examinations among pharmacy school faculty and students.

According to the lawsuit, Warren allegedly asked students to memorize questions from the NAPLEX and share them with him after taking the test. He then compiled the questions into a review packet, which were part of course materials for the review which were sold for $100. Warren was accused of copyright infringement because the NABP owns the copyrights to the test questions, some of which appeared word for word in Warrens review materials. He was accused of misappropriation of trade secrets because the questions evaluate the competency of test-takers, and the questions value comes from them being unknown to students.

The breach of contract charge refers to a 1995 settlement from a similar dispute in which Warren and the University signed a contract agreeing not to infringe on the use of NABP copyrighted materials. The NABP suspended administration of the NAPLEX from Aug. 25 to Oct. 5, 2007, until it was able to create a new version.

Since the lawsuit began, there have been minor changes. In October 2007, five Pharmacy faculty were added to the lawsuit and all but one had the charges dismissed in April 2008. The judge ruled Cobb, who had taught at least one review course with Warren and allegedly helped compile materials, could still be liable for copyright infringement.

NABP/UGA-Flynn Warren Settlement Agreement See the court documents from the lawsuit here. The initial story about the case is found here.

More:
UGA, former pharmacy professor agree to pay $300,000 to settle lawsuit