Law360 (March 30, 2007, 12:00 AM EDT) -- Last year, the Federal Circuit in In re EchoStar Communications Corp., 448 F.3d 1294 (Fed. Cir. 2006) gave alleged infringers good news and bad news on the issue of the scope of waiver when an alleged infringer relies on an opinion of patent counsel to rebut a charge of willful infringement. The good news was that it limited the scope of waiver so as to exclude from waiver attorney-client work product materials prepared by opinion counsel that were not disclosed, or their contents not communicated, to the client. The bad news was that the opinion contained several statements that subsequently have been used – or it is submitted, misused – by district courts to construct variously expansive rules of waiver that apply to litigation counsel....