Protective Order Prohibiting Use of Confidential Information to Determine Infringement of Additional Patents Denied

The court denied without prejudice defendant's motion to modify a protective order to preclude plaintiff from using "[defendant's] confidential information, and more specifically its ANDA, to determine if [defendant] violated [plaintiff's] patent not already named in the complaint." "This appears to be an issue of first impression. . . .The Court will not issue a blanket rule prohibiting [plaintiff] from reviewing [defendant's] confidential information to determine if a new patent should be added to the case. . . . The term limiting the use of confidential information to 'this action' is broader than [defendant's] proposal seeking to limit the use to only the 'claims and defenses' already asserted in the complaint. . . . [A] party may use confidential information to add a new patent to a case, provided that the new patent is sufficiently related to the pleaded claims and defenses that an amendment would be permitted under the applicable Rules of Civil Procedure."

Shire LLC v. Amerigen Pharmaceuticals Limited, 1-14-cv-06095 (NJD May 27, 2015, Order) (Schneider, M.J.)