In re Gabapentin Patent Litigation

214 F.R.D. 178, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9675, 2003 WL 1056640
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedFebruary 26, 2003
DocketMDL No. 1384; Nos. CIV.A.00-CV-2931, CIV.A.00-CV-3522, CIV.A.00-CV-4168, CIV.A.00-CV-4589, CIV.A.00-CV-6073, CIV.A.01-CV-0193, CIV.A.00-CV-0611
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 214 F.R.D. 178 (In re Gabapentin Patent Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Gabapentin Patent Litigation, 214 F.R.D. 178, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9675, 2003 WL 1056640 (D.N.J. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

CHESLER, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on a motion by the MDL Defendants, (hereinafter “Defendants”) to Compel Production of Documents which, they claim, are being improp[180]*180erly withheld by the Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs Pfizer, Inc., Warner-Lambert Company, and Godecke Aktiengesselschaft (collectively ‘Warner-Lambert”) have opposed this motion, arguing that the documents at issue are properly withheld pursuant to the attorney-client privilege, the work product privilege, and in some cases, both. This Court has reviewed the written submissions of both parties and conducted an in camera inspection of the five document categories into which Warner-Lambert has divided the documents they seek to withhold. The Court grants Defendants’ Motion to Compel with respect to certain documents and denies the Motion with respect to others, as explained more fully below.

I. BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This dispute arises from ongoing patent litigation concerning the pharmaceutical known as gabapentin. Warner Lambert began marketing gabapentin capsules in 1994 and gabapentin tablets in 2000. See Barrett Letter Brief dated November 9, 2001 at 11 A. By April 2000, when Warner Lambert’s ’482 patent, entitled “Lactam-Free Amino Acids” (hereinafter “the ’482 patent”) issued, a “number of companies had already developed both generic [gabapentin] capsule and tablet products and had applied for F.D.A. approval.” Id. Warner Lambert subsequently sued seven generic companies with both tablet and capsule AND As, charging that their products infringed the’482 patent. Those suits were consolidated in this multi-district litigation.

On June 14, 2001, each of the parties involved in this litigation produced a log of documents withheld from production pursuant to the attorney-client and work product privileges. (Memorandum of the MDL Defendants in Support of their Motion to Compel Production of Documents (hereinafter “Def.’s Mem.”) at 2; Plaintiffs Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Compel Production of Privileged Documents (hereinafter “PL’s Mem”) at 2). The log provided by Warner-Lambert contained entries for about 700 documents. Those entries consisted of 8 columns labeled (ostensibly) to identify, for each document, a 1) number; 2) type; 3) date; 4) author; 5)recipients; 6)eop-ies distributed; 7) privilege alleged; and 8) description of the document. (Def.’s Mem. at 2; PL’s Mem. at 2). Defendants immediately disputed the adequacy of the privilege log and alleged that Warner Lambert was withholding numerous discoverable documents. Specifically, Defendants claimed that Warner-Lambert’s failure to identify authors, recipients, or dates for various documents made it impossible to determine whether the documents in question were indeed privileged; that Plaintiffs log indicated that all of the documents were being withheld under both the attorney-client and work product privileges; and that the log was inadequate because it identified the subject matter of every document simply by merely referring to the prosecution of the ’482 patent (or its foreign equivalents) or as regarding “gaba-pentin litigation”.

On July 21, 2001 Defendants sent Warner Lambert a letter identifying the alleged deficiencies in the privilege log and requesting production of additional documents. In the ensuing months Defendants sent 5 more letters regarding the inadequacy of the log and requesting production of the withheld documents. Though Warner Lambert produced some additional documents, the parties were ultimately unable to resolve the dispute.

Defendants raised their objections with the Court in a letter dated October 24, 2001, and again at a discovery conference on October 29th. At the October 29th conference this Court ordered the parties to diligently reexamine their withheld documents and produce, by November 30, 2001, revised privilege logs which reflected only those documents truly subject to the attorney-client and work product privileges. (PL’s Mem at 4; Def.’s Mem. At 3). On November 30 Warner Lambert extended its time to produce documents until December 7, 2001; on December 7 they produced 87 additional documents and a revised privilege log. Defendants did not make substantial modifications to their logs. (Id.)

Defendants filed this motion to compel on January 18, 2002. On April 24, 2002, pursuant to this Court’s order dated the same, Warner Lambert submitted the documents now at issue for in camera inspection.

[181]*181II. DISCUSSION

Defendants make the following arguments in their Motion to Compel Production. First, they contend that Plaintiffs have waived the attorney-client and work product privileges through their failure to comply with the terms of Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(5). Next, they argue that plaintiffs should be required to produce documents for which they ar% improperly claiming attorney client and work product protection. Finally, Defendants claim that production of certain documents that arguably contain an attorney’s mental impressions and thought processes concerning anticipated litigation should be compelled nonetheless because the Defendants have a substantial need for the information contained therein to the extent that it relates to an interview with a patent examiner on May 11,1999.

This Court has examined the documents submitted by Warner Lambert for in camera review1 and made both general rulings about groups of documents and specific rulings about individual documents. This memorandum discusses whether those documents are protected by the attorney client or work product privileges and are thereby undiscov-erable.2

A. Attorney Client Privilege

Warner Lambert has claimed that almost every withheld document is subject to the attorney-client privilege. The attorney client privilege exists “to protect not only the giving of professional advice to those who can act on it, but also the giving of information to the lawyer to enable him to give sound and informed advice.” Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383, 101 S.Ct. 677, 66 L.Ed.2d 584 (1981). The privilege “protects a client’s confidential communications to an attorney to obtain legal counseling.” Fisher v. United States, 425 U.S. 391, 403, 96 S.Ct. 1569, 48 L.Ed.2d 39 (1976). Accordingly, “the central inquiry is whether the communication is one that was made by a client to an attorney for the purpose of obtaining legal advice.” In re Spalding Sports Worldwide, Inc., 203 F.3d 800 (Fed.Cir.2000). Herein lies the problem in determining whether, in the patent context, the attorney client privilege applies: where the attorney’s legal advice is rendered in the form of, for instance, a drafted patent application, is the client’s communication of technical information so that the attorney can draft the application the kind of confidential communication that the privilege was intended to protect?

Courts throughout this country have been debating the application of the attorney client privilege with respect to patent practice for much of the last century.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Martz v. Polaris Sales, Inc.
M.D. Pennsylvania, 2024
Stevens v. Sullum
M.D. Pennsylvania, 2023
GENERAL MOTORS LLC v. ASHTON
D. New Jersey, 2022
JONES v. SWEPI LP
W.D. Pennsylvania, 2020
Cooper Health System v. Virtua Health, Inc.
259 F.R.D. 208 (D. New Jersey, 2009)
Peterson v. Bernardi
262 F.R.D. 424 (D. New Jersey, 2009)
Anaya v. CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
251 F.R.D. 645 (D. New Mexico, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
214 F.R.D. 178, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9675, 2003 WL 1056640, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-gabapentin-patent-litigation-njd-2003.