Plaintiff’s Former Officer and Lead Inventor Disqualified as Consultant for Defendant

The court granted plaintiff's motion to disqualify plaintiff's former officer/lead inventor of the patents-in-suit from consulting with defendant on non-confidential matters. "⁠[Defendant] contends that separate and apart from any confidential information he may have received from [plaintiff and its predecessor], [its consultant] has knowledge regarding the background and subject matter of the patents-in-suit that is not confidential. [Defendant] argues it has retained [him] to consult only about these matters, not confidential information or patent strategy. However, [plaintiff] need not show that [its former officer] has been retained to consult regarding [plaintiff's] confidential information or patent strategy, but need only show that he received confidential information 'that is relevant' to the current patent litigation. . . . Given that [the consultant] is an inventor of the technology at issue in this case, it is impractical to expect him to be able to parse 'the specifics of the knowledge [he] gained while working at [plaintiff's predecessor] and his knowledge generally.'"

Promptu Systems Corporation v. Comcast Corporation et al, 2-16-cv-06516 (PAED May 7, 2018, Order) (Sanchez, USDJ)