Cat Got Their Tongue, Public Got Their Transcripts. A Bad Day For Ariosa Diagnostics

Discovery requests denied as moot. Verinata Health, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. et al., No. C 12-06602 SI

There is a line between preparing deponents to give concise, truthful answers without volunteering information and counseling them to be evasive and obstruct a deposition. Last Tuesday, counsel for Ariosa Diagnostics learned where Judge Illston draws that line, and found themselves on the wrong side of it.

The case is Verinata Health, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics Inc. Verinata is a diagnostics company that develops and sells non-invasive tests for the early identification of fetal trisomies, which, like Down's Syndrome, are conditions where a person has three copies of a particular chromosome instead of the normal two. Ariosa is a competing diagnostics company. Verinata filed suit in October 2012, alleging that Ariosa's prenatal tests infringe U.S. Patent No. 8,296,076.