Judge Blocks Purdue Deposition of Chief Executive in Patent Suit

A federal judge denied Purdue University’s bid to depose the top executive at a North Carolina-based chip maker as part of its patent suit against the company.

Purdue argued it’s entitled to put questions to Wolfspeed’s CEO Gregg Lowe after President Joe Biden toured the company’s headquarters in March. Two days after the visit, on March 30, US Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal instructed her agency’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board to revisit an earlier decision rejecting Wolfspeed’s petition for an inter partes review of one of the patents Purdue is asserting in the case.

Purdue argued the ...