Bone Care Int’l., LLC v. Pentech Pharms., Inc., No. 08 C 1083, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Feb. 2, 2009) (Dow, J.).

Judge Dow denied defendants’ motion to prevent plaintiffs from using their preferred technical experts in this patent case.  Pursuant to a Protective Order, plaintiffs notified defendants of their intent to provide three experts with confidential materials.  Defendants objected because defendants had previously retained the same experts in a different patent case in the Northern District.  The Court noted that disqualifying experts was a "drastic measure" taken only when the party seeking disqualification proves a substantial relationship between any acquired confidential information and the expert’s testimony.  The two cases these experts were hired for involve different pharmaceutical formulations for treatment of different conditions.  And the experts testified that because of the different technologies, no information gained in defendants’ earlier case could impact the present case or benefit defendants in this case.  Additionally, the Court noted that defendants did not have a confidential or privileged relationship with the experts.