A federal magistrate judge in Massachusetts has issued a divided ruling on whether, in a patent dispute with Fitbit, Philips North America must turn over emails sent and received by a foreign patent attorney who is not registered as an attorney-at-law.

Philips, which researches and develops technologies such as wearable fitness trackers, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against Fitbit, a wristwatch marketed as a tool to help improve health, in July 2019.