In a recent high-stakes patent litigation case, a protective order, filed on November 22, 2022, was put in place to safeguard confidential information during the course of the legal proceedings. The defendant asserted that the plaintiff’s legal team had struggled to adhere to the protective order’s strict guidelines.
The first alleged violation involved a trial transcript containing sealed proceedings, which was sent from an associate at the plaintiff’s law firm, Williams & Connolly, to an associate at Morrison & Foerster, who is representing the plaintiff in separate IPR proceedings. This disclosure took place on July 18, 2023.
The second incident revolves around the plaintiff’s closing slide no. 298, which contained the defendants’ confidential Yesafili formulation. An associate at Williams & Connolly sent this slide to the plaintiff’s in-house counsel and to outside counsel in Canada. From there, the slide was disseminated to other members of the plaintiff’s in-house counsel team and to various international law firms.
The third and perhaps most concerning alleged violation involves the defendants’ BLA and other confidential information. The plaintiff’s in-house counsel sent this sensitive data to the Liad Whatstein firm in Israel, which handles patent litigation. Continue reading