North Carolina Court Orders Production of Email from Backup Tapes; Parties to Share Restoration Costs Equally
Analog Devices, Inc. v. Michalski, 2006 WL 3287382 (N.C. Super. Nov. 1, 2006) (Unpublished)
In this misappropriation of trade secrets case, defendants moved to compel the production of emails of the originators of the trade secrets at issue relating to the development of those trade secrets and products initially implementing them. At the hearing on the motion, the court ordered Analog to determine the search capability of the databases containing the emails requested and to conduct a word search, if possible, using agreed-upon terms, of emails sent by specific inventors over a two-year period surrounding the release dates of products implementing the alleged trade secrets. Counsel for Analog subsequently reported that it would produce emails still existing on the hard drives of the personal computers used by the trade secret originators. As to emails no longer existing on personal computers but stored on its backup server, Analog argued that production would be expensive and time consuming and therefore unduly burdensome.