Federal Circuit grants POSCO’s mandamus petition, bars use of POSCO’s confidential discovery materials in foreign litigation

Finnegan client POSCO won a petition for mandamus in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, successfully challenging a district court ruling modifying the protective order to permit use of highly confidential U.S. discovery materials in foreign litigations. The Federal Circuit concluded that, when deciding whether to modify the protective order in such a manner and circumstance, the district court should have considered the factors set out in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. The Federal Circuit granted POSCO’s mandamus petition, vacated the district court’s order permitting foreign cross-use of POSCO’s discovery materials, and remanded. Finnegan represented POSCO both in the mandamus petition and in the underlying district court litigation.