Western University of Health Sciences Has Filed an Answer to Dr. Eichelberger's Complaint
Our initial report on this case detailed the Complaint filed by Dr. Eichelberger (“Eichelberger”) against Dr. Mary Hudson-McKinney (“Hudson-McKinney”) and Western University of Health Sciences (“Western”). The Complaint is centered on a set of teaching materials developed by Eichelberger that was allegedly copied both for personal use and distribution to her classes. Eichelberger also claims that Western was vicariously responsible because they knew about or should have known about the infringement, and because of their role in facilitating the infringement and profiting from it.
Since our report, Western has filed an Answer to the Complaint, mostly denying Eichelberger’s claims or asserting a lack of knowledge regarding them. They did, however, confirm several factual statements regarding the nature and other identifying factors of the interested parties. Their Answer was individual and did not represent Hudson-McKinney in any way.
For reasons unknown, Western also refused to consent to proceedings under the assigned federal judge; the case was then reassigned to a different judge of the same district.
We will provide further updates as they become available.