Judge Burke recently considered INVISTA’s motion for contempt and for modification of the protective order. INVISTA N. Am. S.a.r.l., et al. v. M&G USA Corp., et al., C.A. No. 11-1007-SLR-CJB (D. Del. Apr. 25, 2014). Previously, a jury found in favor of INVISTA and, following post-trial motions, Judge Robinson entered judgment in favor of INVISTA and granted INVISTA’s motion for a permanent injunction. In support of its contempt motion, INVISTA argued that M&G filed a petition in Virginia state court seeking an order requiring discovery from INVISTA, that “willfully violated three orders of the Court,” including the protective order Id. at 8 (internal quotations omitted). Judge Burke denied INVISTA’s motion finding that clear and convincing evidence did not demonstrate that M&G “knowingly disobeyed a valid order of this Court.” Id. at 10. For example, while one such order denied M&G’s motion to compel the discovery, that denial was “in the context of ‘this patent infringement action[.]'” Id. at 11 (emphasis and alteration in orginal). Judge Burke also found that M&G did not disobey the protective order in this case when it publicly filed the Virginia petition using information from a confidential document inadvertently produced in this case. Judge Burke found that the protective order’s restrictions did not apply to information that was in the possession of M&G before it was “transmitted” by INVISTA to M&G in the litigation. Id. at 18.
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