The amended complaint filed by Gene Neal and Kennieth Neal alleged claims for patent infringement and violations of California state law for unfair competition and false advertising. The Defendants, pursuant to Rule 26(d), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure sought “an Order regarding the handling of discovery concerning Plaintiffs’ pre-filing investigation…
Articles Posted in Discovery
Apple v. Samsung: Court Denies Samsung’s Request for Discovery Based on Apple’s Alleged Disclosure of Confidential Information
In the ongoing patent battle between Samsung and Apple, Samsung, trying to turn the tables on Apple, filed a motion for sanctions based on Apple’s disclosure of confidential information. The court had previously sanctioned Samsung for disclosing confidential information. Prior to addressing the specific Samsung motion, the court went through…
Court Denies Motion to Compel Plaintiff’s Expert Testimony Prior to Claim Construction
Plaintiff Glas-Weld Systems, Inc., filed a patent infringement and unfair competition action against defendants Michael P. Boyle, dba Surface Dynamix, and Christopher Boyle. Plaintiff moved for partial summary judgment and to supplement the record, and Christopher Boyle moved to compel depositions of plaintiff’s expert. The district court stayed the partial…
Court Strikes Errata Sheets to Depositions Where “Clarifications” Materially Altered Testimony
Plaintiffs Scott Clare, Neil Long, and Innovative Truck Storage, Inc. filed a patent infringement action against Defendant Chrysler Group, LLC, arguing that Defendant infringed their patent for hidden pick up truck bed storage. Chrysler Group filed a motion to strike Plaintiffs’ errata sheets from depositions, arguing that Plaintiffs were attempting…
Court Rules That Crime-Fraud Exception Trumps Attorney-Client Privilege Where Patent Holder Made Series of False Representations to the Patent and Trademark Office
HTC Corporation and HTC America, Inc. (“HTC”) moved for a finding that this patent infringement action is “exceptional” under the Patent Act’s fee-shifting provision which authorizes the award of attorney fees and costs to prevailing parties in “exceptional cases.” 35 U.S.C. § 285. The district court had previously found that…
After Parties Engaged in “Abusive Litigation Tactics,” Court Orders Clients to Consent to the Filing of Any Further Motions to Compel, Attend the Hearings on Such Motions and Pay the Any Ordered Sanctions
After the district court granted a motion to compel in which it overruled the defendants’ objections and ordered the defendants to provide complete responses to the interrogatories and to produce all responsive documents, the defendants provided supplemental responses but renewed the overruled objections and asserted additional objections that were not…
District Court Orders Production of Litigation Funding Agreement
In the patent infringement action between Cobra International, Inc. (“Cobra”) and BCNY International, Inc. (“BCNY”), BCNY filed a motion to compel several documents, including a litigation funding agreement. Cobra opposed the motion asserting that the person funding the litigation was not making decisions regarding the lawsuit and was not interfering…
Bickering Brothers Break Common Interest and Results in Waiver of Attorney-Client Privilege
Porto Technology Co., LTD (“Porto”) filed a patent infringement action against Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless (“Verizon”). During the litigation, Verizon moved to compel communications between two of the plaintiffs, who are brothers, and counsel. As explained by the district court, the court began by looking at “communications between Ji-Soo…
Emblaze v. Apple: Court Orders Parties to Meet and Confer Over Motion to Compel After Emblaze Fails to Justify How Apple’s Search Terms Were Unduly Burdensome
In this patent infringement action, Apple moved to compel production from Emblaze based on search terms that Apple provided. Emblaze opposed the motion, arguing that it had produced all responsive documents, that Apple’s requests were overbroad and that using Apple’s search terms would be unduly burdensome. The court began its…
LG Moves to Compel Plaintiff to Produce Inventor Who Resides in Taiwan to Sit for a Deposition in the United States
In this patent infringement action between Industrial Technology Research Institute (“ITRI”) and LG Corporation (“LG”), LG moved to compel ITRI to make a Taiwanese citizen, who was also the inventor of the patent-in-suit, but no longer an employee of ITRI, to sit for a deposition in the United States. The…