Apple is fighting to keep four of its patent lawyers out of a deposition chair in the company’s ongoing legal fight with competitor Nokia over cell phone technology patents.
Nokia, represented by Patrick J. Flinn of Alston & Bird in Atlanta, wants four of Apple’s attorneys from Washington’s Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox to testify about meetings they had with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office about several patents in question. Apple is arguing that information protected by attorney-client privilege would come out in such a deposition, and also that Nokia already has several other ways of learning what happened in those meetings.
