( October 16, 2026, 10:17 AM EDT) -- FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Concluding that multiple employees of third-party consultants “acted as functional employees of” the defendant in a patent dispute, a Florida federal magistrate judge ruled that he didn’t have enough information to issue a protective order but that the defendant “did not waive the attorney client privilege purely because information was disclosed to” the consultants and “the work product doctrine could apply to the documents at issue.”...