Appeals court upholds decision against former University of Missouri professor

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday upheld a local court's ruling against a former University of Missouri professor in a case based on intellectual property rights.

A three-judge panel of the Western District Court of Appeals upheld Circuit Judge Jeff Harris' judgment in Galen Suppes lawsuit against the UM System.

Suppes sued the university in Boone County in July 2019 claiming breach of contract. Suppes alleged UM infringed on his rights to his inventions and patents developed while he was a professor there. His claims included that the university inflicted emotional distress on him for kicking him out of an on-campus event.

The former professor filed the Boone County lawsuit after a federal lawsuit was dismissed and after the university had won a judgment against him in court.

Suppes was ordered in 2017 to pay $600,000 to the university for breach of contract in a separate lawsuit brought by UM in 2009. The university ended Suppes tenure and fired him in 2017. His lawsuits challenging the firings failed.

Tuesday's ruling applied only to the 2019 lawsuit Suppes filed against the university.