A French court has slammed the ethical behaviour of Paris's prestigious Pasteur Institute and ordered it to pay ?150,000 (US$215,000) in damages to Rupert Mutzel, a biologist at the Free University of Berlin, for denigrating his scientific reputation.

In the 1990s, Mutzel and Philippe Marlière ? then a researcher at the Pasteur Institute ? patented a microbial technique for selecting accelerated proliferation of living cells in suspension. An exclusive licence was agreed for Marlière to utilize the patent. But in 2003, the institute revoked the licence without asking Mutzel, and negotiated a new one with another company, Eco-Solution.

The court ruling, which became public on 12 December, says that the institute tried to mislead the court by concocting ?totally imaginary? evidence against Mutzel. The court also criticized the institute's ethics committee for throwing doubts on Mutzel's integrity and for saying that it ?regretted? that he had ?provoked a legal conflict?. The court told the committee that it was normal for Mutzel to take legal action to defend his rights.

The Pasteur Institute says the current management does not dispute Mutzel's status but adds that it will appeal against the size of the fine. A separate case against the institute by Marlière is pending.