Dr. Capeless feels he has a significant investment in continuing his current line of research at the new institution. There might even have been an implied assumption between him and his new departmental chair that the current research efforts would continue.

These are some possible outcomes:

Dr. Capeless appeals to the Dean of his college to garner support for his position.

Dr. Capeless retains an attorney to represent him. Dr. Capeless feels the data sharing agreement does not explicitly state that he loses data sharing rights when leaving for another institution.

Despite warnings against doing so, Dr. Capeless takes a copy of the data with him.