UC Davis wins early ruling in strawberry lawsuit

A federal judge has made an initial ruling in California Berry Cultivar’s lawsuit against the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and its strawberry-breeding program.

California Berry founders Douglas Shaw and Kirk Larson were scientists with the university’s strawberry-breeding program until 2014 when they left to found California Berry.

Here’s more from the Sacramento Bee:

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria rejected California Berry’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have forced UC Davis to turn over copies of the plants to a third-party grower so they can be bred this summer into strawberries.

The judge’s ruling doesn’t end the case, but it suggests California Berry faces an uphill battle. In denying the request, Chhabria wrote that California Berry “has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits” of the case.