As a matter of comity, U.S. courts usually apply other
countries' privilege laws to purely overseas communications
that do not "touch base" with the United States. Because
most European countries (and the EU itself) do not extend privilege
protection to in-house lawyers' communications, in many
situations applying foreign privilege law decreases possible
privilege protection for U.S. corporations.
However, in some contexts, foreign law offers a greater chance
of privilege protection than U.S. law normally provides. In
Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC,
Case No. 13-cv-00139 DMS (MDD), 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13661 (S.D.
Cal. Feb. 3, 2014), the court assessed communications in Germany
involving a patent agent, which dealt with a European patent
application. The court concluded that the communications did not
"touch base" with the U.S., and therefore applied German
law. Id. at *8-9. The court extended privilege protection
to the communications –
