The Sedona Conference and its Working Groups 10 on Patent Litigation Best Practices (WG10) and 12 on Trade Secrets (WG12) are pleased to announce that The Sedona Conference Commentary on Cross-Border Discovery in US Patent and Trade Secret Cases (Stage Two) (“Cross-Border Commentary”) has been published in final form. This Cross-Border Commentary offers best practices that address the management of applications to U.S. district courts made pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 by actual or potential litigants seeking evidence encompassing confidential or trade secret information to be used in a proceeding before a foreign or international tribunal. The complexities of Section 1782 are not unique to patent and trade secret litigation. However, one significant Section 1782 issue in intellectual property (IP) disputes is how best to ensure that whatever confidential information, particularly potential trade secrets, produced from or generated in the foreign jurisdiction will be kept confidential by the recipients of that information. While U.S. courts in domestic litigation have available mechanisms such as confidentiality orders, Section 1782 applications raise independent complexities, as protections for confidential or trade secret information in a foreign tribunal may not align with protections typical in U.S. courts. A foreign jurisdiction supervising the underlying IP dispute might not treat the information generated by the Section 1782 application as confidential or as a trade secret, even if a U.S. court would do so. We explore these issues in our Cross-Border Commentary. We are planning a future webinar to discuss the subjects addressed in the Cross-Border Commentary. Look out for our upcoming Sedona Conference communication providing the date and time for our Cross-Border webinar. Finally, please join us at the annual meeting of WG12 on September 11-12, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. More information about the annual meeting can be found here.
The Sedona Conference Working Groups 10 (Patent Litigation Best Practices) and 12 (Trade Secrets) The mission of Working Group 10 is to develop best practices and recommendations for patent litigation case management. The mission of WG12 is to develop consensus and nonpartisan principles for managing trade secret litigation and well-vetted guidelines for consideration in protecting trade secrets, recognizing that every organization has and uses trade secrets, that trade secret disputes frequently intersect with other important public policies such as employee mobility and international trade, and that trade secret disputes are litigated in both state and federal courts. To become a member of The Sedona Conference Working Group Series (WGS) and WGs 10 and 12, please visit https://thesedonaconference.org/join. |
