Patent Litigation, Discovery, Attorney-Client Privilege

To Be or Not to Be...Discoverable: Third-Party Litigation Funders

Venable LLP on 5/8/2025

Should California courts permit litigants to conduct discovery into litigation funding, namely whether a third party is funding their adversary’s litigation efforts?...more

Sued: What In-house Counsel Without Litigation Experience Need to Know - Preparing Your Inside Team

Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C. on 5/15/2024

3: Preparing Your Inside Team - Preservation, Privilege, Potential Pitfalls -This is the third in a series of articles that explores considerations and suggested actions for in-house counsel who are inexperienced in patent...more

Dual-Purpose, Patent Analysis Documents Found Immune from Discovery under Work Product Doctrine

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 4/18/2019

In Limestone Memory Systems LLC v. Micron Technology, Inc. et al., the Discovery Master ruled that, under 9th Circuit law, pre-suit, patent analysis documents qualified for immunity from discovery under the work product...more

Use of Patent Agents Increasingly Fortified

Miles & Stockbridge P.C. on 3/9/2018

On Friday, February 23, 2018, the Texas Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that attorney-client privilege does not extend to patent agents. The ruling, bound to reverberate throughout the intellectual property...more

Distinguishing Between "Facts" and Lawyers' "Opinions"

McGuireWoods LLP on 3/16/2016

Although the attorney-client privilege does not protect historical facts, any facts "created" during or in anticipation of litigation can present a difficult analysis. In Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. Merck & Co., Case No....more

The Federal Circuit Newly Recognizes Patent-Agent Privilege

Mintz - Intellectual Property Viewpoints on 3/14/2016

On March 7, 2016, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recognized “a patent-agent privilege extending to communications with non-attorney patent agents when those agents are acting within the agent’s authorized...more