AbCellera Biologics Inc. v. Bruker Cellular Analysis, Inc.

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 ABCELLERA BIOLOGICS INC, et al., Case No. 20-cv-08624-JST (VKD)

8 Plaintiffs, FURTHER ORDER RE APRIL 28, 2025 9 v. DISCOVERY DISPUTE LETTER

10 BRUKER CELLULAR ANALYSIS, INC., Re: Dkt. Nos. 343, 359 Defendant. 11

12 13 At the Court’s direction, on May 23, 2025, plaintiff AbCellera Biologics, Inc. 14 (“AbCellera”) submitted the declaration of Andrew Booth for in camera review. See Dkt. No. 359 15 at 8-9. Having reviewed the declaration, the Court finds that it includes factual information 16 regarding matters the Court previously concluded are relevant to the parties’ respective damages 17 calculations. See id. at 4. Mr. Booth should have been permitted to testify regarding this 18 information during his deposition. However, the declaration also includes material that is properly 19 protected from disclosure by the joint defense privilege—specifically, communications between 20 UBC and AbCellera, co-plaintiffs in this action, about a matter in which they have a common 21 legal interest. See United States v. Gonzalez, 669 F.3d 974, 978 (9th Cir. 2012) (joint defense 22 privilege is an extension of attorney-client privilege); see also United States v. Garrison, 888 F.3d 23 1057, 1062 n.2 (9th Cir. 2018) (same). 24 Given the status of proceedings in this case, in lieu of ordering Mr. Booth (or another 25 AbCellera witness) to provide further deposition testimony, the Court adopts AbCellera’s 26 suggestion that it produce a redacted version of Mr. Booth’s declaration to Bruker Cellular. 27 AbCellera shall promptly produce to Bruker Cellular the entirety of Mr. Booth’s May 23, 2025 1 expects that production of this declaration will fully resolve the parties’ dispute. However, if, after 2 || receiving the redacted declaration, Bruker Cellular disagrees that it resolves the dispute, the parties 3 shall confer further, and if they cannot reach agreement, they shall jointly file a status report 4 || briefly summarizing their respective proposals for resolving what remains of this dispute. 5 IT IS SO ORDERED. 6 || Dated: May 23, 2025 4 <8 8 Virginia K. DeMarchi 9 United States Magistrate Judge 10 11 12

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