The Federal Court of Appeals just released a model order for patent litigation e-discovery reform. On Tuesday the Federal Circuit Advisory Council unanimously voted for the model in hopes that eventually many federal courts will come to use it and more efficient e-discovery standards will take hold.

Some of the more interesting limits the model order sets are:

–          E-mail productions can only be requested for specific reasons, “not general discovery of a product or business”

–          E-mail requests are limited to 5 search terms per custodian and 5 custodians per producing party

–          Permission is not waived if privileged documents are inadvertently produced

Chief Judge Randall Rader of the Federal Court of Appeals led the way on the order stating that the U.S. Court System cannot continue to let e-discovery astronomically increase expenses. Advisory Council Chairman Edward Reines believes that although not perfect, this order will help shift habits towards more reasonable discovery practices.

Keep checking back next week, the BLLAWG will keep you posted on how the legal community responds to these guidelines.