Bluestar Genomics v. Song

Opinion

1 EDWARD R. REINES (Bar No. 135960) KAREN E. FRIEDMAN (Admitted Pro Hac Vice) edward.reines@weil.com CHRISTIN FLYNN LAL (Admitted Pro Hac Vice) 2 DEREK C. WALTER (Bar No. 246322) kfriedman@luriefriedman.com derek.walter@weil.com clal@luriefriedman.com 3 WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES LLP LURIE FRIEDMAN LLP Silicon Valley Office One McKinley Square 4 201 Redwood Shores Parkway Boston, Massachusetts 02109 Redwood Shores, CA 94065 Telephone: (617) 367-1970 5 Telephone: (650) 802-3000 Facsimile: (650) 802-3100 Attorneys for Defendant 6 CHUNXIAO SONG YI ZHANG (Admitted Pro Hac Vice) 7 yi.zhang@weil.com WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES LLP 8 767 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10153 9 Telephone: (212) 310-8000 Facsimile: (212) 310-8007 10 Attorneys for Plaintiff 11 BLUESTAR GENOMICS 12 13 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 14 SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION 15 BLUESTAR GENOMICS, Case No. 4:21-cv-04507-JST 16 Plaintiff, 17 STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] v. ORDER REGARDING ISSUANCE OF 18 LETTER OF REQUEST UNDER THE CHUNXIAO SONG, HAGUE CONVENTION 19 Defendant. 20 Judge: Jon S. Tigar 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 This Stipulation is entered into by and between Plaintiff Bluestar Genomics (“Plaintiff”) and 2 Defendant Chunxiao Song (“Defendant”), by and through their respective counsel, and subject to the 3 Court’s approval, with reference to the following: 4 WHEREAS, the undersigned counsel represent Plaintiff and Defendant in the above-captioned 5 case before this Court, 6 WHEREAS, Defendant disclosed certain witnesses located in the United Kingdom as having 7 information and documents relevant to this case, 8 WHEREAS, Plaintiff seeks Issuance of a Letter of Request, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1781 and 9 the Hague Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters (“Hague 10 Convention”), to seek documents and testimony of Xin Lu, Skirmantas Kriaucionis, Vincent Smith and 11 Paulina Siejka-Zielinksa, 12 WHEREAS, Plaintiff is unable to obtain this relevant evidence by other means, 13 WHEREAS, the Hague Convention authorizes the District Court for the Northern District of 14 California to issue the Letter of Request. See Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale v. United 15 States D. of S.D. of Iowa, 482 U.S. 522, 535 (1987) (“a judicial authority in one contracting state may 16 forward a letter of request to the competent authority in another contracting state for the purpose of 17 obtaining evidence”) (internal quotation omitted); 28 U.S.C. § 1781(b)(2) (permitting “transmittal of a 18 letter rogatory or request directly from a tribunal in the United States to the foreign or international 19 tribunal, officer, or agency to whom it is addressed and its return in the same manner”), 20 WHEREAS, this Court may properly issue Letters of Request to the judicial authorities in the 21 United Kingdom. Under Article 1 of the Hague Convention, a judicial authority of a signatory state 22 may request an authority of another signatory state to obtain evidence by means of a Letter of Request. 23 See Hague Convention. The United Kingdom and the United States are signatories to the Hague 24 Convention. Under Article 2 of the Hague Convention, The United Kingdom has designated the Senior 25 Master of the Royal Courts of Justice, Room E16, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL 26 as its central authority to receive Letters of Request. See 27 https://www.hcch.net/en/states/authorities/details3/?aid=278 (visited January 19, 2024). 1 WHEREAS, Plaintiff is prepared to pay the fees and costs incurred in executing this Letters of 2 Request, 3 WHEREAS, Defendant does not intend to oppose the issuance of the Letter of Request, 4 NOW, THEREFORE, the Parties hereby stipulate and agree to the issuance of the following 5 Letter of Request. Plaintiff requests that the Court sign and date both this Order and the Letter of 6 Request, attached hereto as Exhibit A, and return a copy to Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, counsel for 7 Bluestar, which is hereby directed to arrange for the filing of this Order and Letter of Request with The 8 Senior Master, Royal Courts of Justice, for the attention of the Foreign Process Section, Room E16, 9 Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL, United Kingdom. 10 IT IS SO STIPULATED. 11 Date: February 22, 2024 WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES LLP 12 13 /s/ Edward R. Reines EDWARD R. REINES (Bar No. 135960) 14 Attorney for Plaintiff Bluestar Genomics 15 16 Date: February 22, 2024 /s/ Karen E. Friedman _____ 17 KAREN E. FRIEDMAN (Admitted Pro Hac Vice) 18 Attorney for Defendant Chunxiao Song 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 CIVIL LOCAL RULE 5-1 ATTESTATION 2 I, Edward R. Reines, am the ECF user whose credentials were utilized in the electronic 3 filing of this document. In accordance with Civil Local Rule 5-1(i)(3), I hereby attest that Karen 4 Friedman concurred in the filing of this document. 5 Dated: February 22, 2024 6 /s/ Edward R. Reines 7 Edward R. Reines 8 9 ORDER 10 Pursuant to Stipulation, 11 IT IS SO ORDERED. 12 13 Dated: __F_eb_r_u_a_ry_ _2_9,_ 2_0_2_4_____ 14 The Honorable Jon S. Tigar 15 United States District Court Judge 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27