Brown & Williamson - Brown & Williamson V. Regents of The University of California

Brown & Williamson V. Regents of The University of California

Thousands of pages of the B&W documents were donated unsolicited to the UCSF Tobacco Control Archives in 1994. These documents consist primarily of scientific studies on the addictive nature of nicotine and other health effects of tobacco smoke. Also included is documentation of $500,000 in payments to Sylvester Stallone for promoting B&W products in five of Stallone's films. B&W sought to permanently remove the disputed material from the library with a suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court. The University of California contended that all of the documents were in the public domain and should be available to scholars and other interested parties. On 25 May 1995 the Superior Court ruled that these documents should be made available for public review. B&W appealed that decision, and on 23 June 1995 the Court of Appeals refused a temporary restraining order preventing release of the documents. On 29 June the California Supreme Court rejected the company's appeal, allowing UCSF to release the documents.