Contingency Fee Agreement May Support Finding of Deceptive Intent for Purposes of Inequitable Conduct Defense

In granting in part defendants' motion to compel fee agreements between plaintiff and its counsel, the court noted that "[t]here may be circumstances in which a contingency fee agreement would be a single fact out of many used to prove deceptive intent for the purposes of inequitable conduct. While Defendants have failed to outline or assert any basis for such a showing, evidence need not be admissible at trial to be discoverable. Moreover, relevance does not require sufficiency as to the claim at issue. As a result, the Court is unable to conclude that the non-privileged information is not discoverable."

Magistrate John D. Love
Real Time Data, LLC v. Packeteer, Inc., 6-08-cv-00144
(TXED May 8, 2009, Order)