According to Patently-O, the Federal Circuit has reversed in TexasLDPC v. Broadcom, holding that Rule 19 is not a discovery tool. The decision also means Texas A&M is not a required party to its licensee's suit. The case turns on the relationship between sovereign immunity, discovery, and joinder in patent litigation.
Patently-O frames the issue as both shield and sword: sovereign immunity can shield a state entity from being joined, but it cannot be used as a sword to force discovery through Rule 19. By rejecting the use of Rule 19 to bring in a non-required sovereign party, the Federal Circuit has limited a strategic path that sought to use joinder rules to reach otherwise immune parties.