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Keywords

lawsuitlitigationattorneydiscoverymotiontrustpatentcorporationantitrustattorney-client privilege

plaintifflitigationattorneydiscoverypatenttrade secret

Related Cases

Duplan Corp. v. Deering Milliken, Inc., 397 F.Supp. 1146, 184 U.S.P.Q. 775

Facts

The litigation stems from a series of patent-antitrust lawsuits, with over one million documents produced during discovery. The patent owner and its allies withheld approximately 4,500 documents, claiming various privileges. The former patent licensees sought production of these documents, leading to a court order for an in-camera review to determine the applicability of the claimed privileges.

During the course of five years of continuous discovery, counsel have estimated that more than one million documents have been produced to and from the 22 parties involved in this litigation. The owner of the patent and its allied parties (hereinafter collectively referred to as plaintiff) have declined to produce approximately 4,500 documents for which claims of work product, attorney-client, trade secrets, and irrelevancy are asserted.

Issue

The main legal issues include whether factual work product documents are discoverable under certain conditions, the scope of attorney-client privilege in corporate settings, and the implications of voluntary waiver of privilege.

Does the voluntary waiver without limitation of one privileged document between a certain attorney and a certain client discussing a certain subject waive the privilege as to all communications between the same attorney and the same client on the same subject?

Rule

The court ruled that factual work product documents from current litigation are discoverable only if they contain operative facts relevant to the issues involved, while opinion work product is absolutely privileged. Additionally, communications must be limited to the control group of a corporation to maintain privilege.

The court determined that, upon a showing of substantial need and undue hardship, factual work product documents from current litigation became discoverable only if the documents contained operative facts relevant to issues involved in the present litigation. Opinion work product from such current litigation was absolutely privileged from discovery in view of Rule 26(b)(3) protecting against disclosure of attorney's opinions.

Analysis

The court applied the rules by conducting an in-camera review of the withheld documents, determining which documents contained operative facts relevant to the litigation. It emphasized the need to balance the confidentiality of attorney-client communications with the necessity of full disclosure in legal proceedings, particularly in the context of corporate clients and the control group doctrine.

The court then prepared a proposed memorandum of the guidelines to be used in ruling upon the issues raised by the various documents initially reviewed. Thereafter, the court heard arguments from all parties on the proposed guidelines. These arguments were exhaustive and lasted ten hours over the course of two days.

Conclusion

The court ordered the production of certain documents while upholding the privilege for others, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the integrity of the attorney-client relationship and the work product doctrine.

Order accordingly.

Who won?

The prevailing party was the former patent licensees (the throwsters), as the court ruled in favor of their motion for document production under specific conditions.

The 17 former patent licensees (hereinafter referred to as the throwsters) have moved for production of all documents.

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