Long-lasting dispute over ‘Morisky Widget’ IP yields fresh lawsuit

The new complaint comes as MMAS Research is facing default judgment in Seattle federal court over Donald Morisky's claims.LOS ANGELES (CN) — A new lawsuit added yet another twist to the bitter dispute between a UCLA researcher and his former business partner over ownership of a widely used method to assess whether patients take their prescribed medication as well as the digital tool to analyze the underlying data — the Morisky Widget.MMAS Research, in a complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, accuses Donald Morisky, a professor emeritus of community health sciences at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, of fraud and breach of contract related to a 2020 settlement between the former business partners after Morisky had left the company.Morisky set up a new company, Morisky Medication Adherence Research, and announced in 2021 that the Morisky Widget, licensed through MMAS Research, would be phased out and licensees should start using the digital platform of his new company, MMAR.MMAS Research, however, points to a 2024 Ninth Circuit decision, in a copyright lawsuit by MMAS Research against a German hospital, that held the 2020 settlement, which was to transfer ownership of the Morisky Widget to Morisky, was never finalized, and as such, MMAS Research still had standing to sue for infringement of the tool.“MMAR had and has no right, title or interest in the Morisky Widget capable of being licensed to anyone,” MMAS claims in its new complaint. “Morisky surrendered his 50% ownership interest in the Morisky Widget by his written acceptance of June 21, 2019, in exchange for his withdrawal from plaintiff, and has held nothing in the Morisky Widget since that date.”An attorney for Morisky didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Morisky, meanwhile, filed his own lawsuit in Seattle five years ago to get a ruling that he’s the rightful owner of the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale and the Morisky Widget.In that case, he has a pending motion for default judgment on his claims after the judge in April agreed MMAS Research defaulted for repeatedly violating court orders and using delay tactics.In another not-so-promising development for MMAS Research, a federal judge in LA dismissed another lawsuit by the company against Morisky and some users of the Morisky IP earlier this year because, the judge said, the claims were based on the same underlying issues already being litigated in Seattle.Morisky’s Medication Adherence Scale is used worldwide as the “gold standard” for medical practitioners and researchers to predictively assess potential compliance issues patients may have with following medication protocols, he argues in the Seattle federal case.In 2011, he set up MMAS Research LLC to license the Morisky Scales, train licensees to use the method properly and confirm the accuracy of the results.Steven Trubow, who still runs the company that has been fighting Morisky across multiple jurisdictions, joined MMAS Research a few years later. Trubow took over the licensing work, and the revenue was to be split 50-50 with Morisky. The company also developed the Morisky Widget as the exclusive tool to use the Morisky scales.By 2020, however, Morisky believed he wasn’t getting his 50% of the licensing revenue and sought to revoke MMAS Research’s authority to license the products, leading to the first lawsuit in Nevada federal court.The subsequent settlement was to give Morisky the intellectual property in his work, but as the Ninth Circuit observed, it was never finalized.Two licensees of the Morisky Widget who purported to have settled conflicts over the use of the methodology directly with Morisky without involving MMAS Research are also named as defendants in the new complaint.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads