Judge Richard G. Andrews recently considered defendant’s request to compel plaintiff to supplement its response to defendant’s interrogatory that asked for information about the allegations in plaintiff’s complaint about plaintiff’s pre-filing testing of the accused product. Waters Technologies Corp. v. Aurora SFC Systems Inc., C.A. No. 11-708-RGA (D. Del. Jan. 14, 2013). Plaintiff’s complaint alleged that “[o]n or about April 4, 2011, Waters acquired a sample Aurora SFC Fusion A5 product, conducted testing and analysis on the device, and determined that use of the product and/or the product itself meets all of the limitations of one or more claims in each ofthe ‘767 and ‘609 Patents.” Id. at 1. In response to defendant’s interrogatory, plainitff identified the date of the testing and identified a person with knowledge of the testing, but refused to provide further information claiming attorney-client privilege. Id. at 2. Defendant argued that plaintiff waived attorney-client privilege because plaintiff “pled its testing and asserted it had evidentiary support, about which [defendant] is entitled to take discovery.” Id. Plaintiff argued that “there can be no waiver for complying with Rule 11’s requirement of a good faith pre-suit investigation and other pleading requirements.” Id. While Judge Andrews noted that plaintiff “should not have allege[d] facts in its Complaint unless the facts are something it intends to prove[,]” the allegations were “essentially” a statement that Plaintiff complied with Rule 11. Id. at 3. Therefore, the Court denied defendant’s request and found that plaintiff had not waived attorney-client privilege. Id.
Waters Technologies Corp. v. Aurora SFC Systems, Inc. (D. Del. Jan. 14, 2013) by
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