Catagory:Market Announcements

By Christopher S. Rugaber from the Associated Press via Washingtonpost.com:

"Federal regulators inadvertently released dozens of trade secrets in public court documents yesterday as they tried to block Whole Foods Market’s $565 million purchase of Wild Oats Markets.

The Federal Trade Commission documents revealed that Whole Foods plans to close 30 or more Wild Oats stores in competitive markets, a move that the company thinks would nearly double revenue for some Whole Foods stores. "

Click here to read the entire story on Washingtonpost.com.  Free subscription required.

Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp., No. 05-CV-1958-B(BLM) (S.D. Cal. Aug. 13, 2007) (Order to Show Cause Why Sanctions Should Not Be Imposed)

Today, Magistrate Judge Barbara Lynn Major, United States District Court for the Southern District of California, signed and entered an Order to Show Cause directing 14 attorneys, “and any and all other attorneys who signed discovery responses, signed pleadings and pre-trial motions, and/or appeared at trial on behalf of Qualcomm,” to appear in her courtroom on August 29, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed against them for failure to comply with the Court’s orders.  The Order provides that the attorneys may also file declarations regarding the imposition of sanctions on or before August 22, 2007.

The Order to Show Cause comes on the heels of the 54-page Order on Remedy for Finding of Waiver, entered August 6, 2007, by District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster.  There, the District Judge found “by clear and convincing evidence that Qualcomm[’s] counsel participated in an organized program of litigation misconduct and concealment throughout discovery, trial, and post-trial before new counsel took over lead role in the case on April 27, 2007.”  Among other things, the Court highlighted Qualcomm’s production of over 200,000 pages of highly relevant emails and electronic documents four months post-trial.

A copy of today’s Order to Show Cause is available here.

A copy of Judge Rudi M. Brewster’s August 6, 2007 Order on Remedy for Finding of Waiver is available here.

A copy of Judge Rudi M. Brewster’s August 6, 2007 Order Granting Broadcom Corporation’s Motion for Exceptional Case Finding and for an Award of Attorneys’ Fees (35 U.S.C. § 285) is available here.

By Jesse Seyfer from The Recorder:

A federal magistrate’s order that stops a Web site from routinely tossing relevant data could, if replicated, carry broad e-discovery implications.

Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian’s May 29 order requires TorrentSpy to turn over customer data only ephemerally kept in its computers’ random access memory, or RAM. It could result in floods of similar requests in other civil cases, according to Ira Rothken, the Novato, Calif.-based attorney for the TorrentSpy site.

The Los Angeles magistrate’s order also has privacy watchdogs concerned.

Click here to read the entire article on Law.com.

Effective June 4, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio has incorporated a Default Standard for Discovery of Electronically Stored Information ("E-Discovery") as Appendix K to its Local Civil Rules.  Although the Court expects parties to cooperatively reach agreement on how to conduct e-discovery, in the event that such agreement has not been reached by the time of the Fed. R. Civ. P. 16 scheduling conference, the default standards will apply until such time, if ever, the parties reach agreement and conduct e-discovery on a consensual basis.  The newly adopted default standard is available on the court’s website, at: http://www.ohnd.uscourts.gov/Clerk_s_Office/Local_Rules/AppendixK.pdf

The Court has also revised its Local Civil Rule 16 regarding case management.  Among other revisions, LR 16.3(b)(2)(F) now specifically includes discussion of electronic discovery as an agenda item for the Case Management Conference.  Revised LR 16.3 is available at: http://www.ohnd.uscourts.gov/Clerk_s_Office/Local_Rules/lr16.3redline6-4-07.pdf

For a complete listing of local federal rules and guidelines addressing electronic discovery, see our recent post on the subject here.

On April 20, 2007, the Federal Reserve Board (the “FRB”) issued a proposal to withdraw portions of five interim final rules that address the electronic delivery of required consumer disclosures. The regulations are: B (implementing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act), E (implementing the Electronic Funds Transfer Act), M (implementing the Consumer Leasing Act), Z (implementing the Truth in Lending Act) and DD (implementing the Truth in Savings Act).

The withdrawal means that those who have attempted to comply with the interim rules, and those who ignored them, can and should now focus their attention on the requirements of the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (“E-Sign”). This creates both benefits and new ambiguities for financial institutions.

Click here to read the entire story by K&L Gates partners Jonathan Jaffe and Holly Towle.

By Samar Srivastava From today’s Wall Street Journal:

"Demand for software that can search and locate emails, text messages, videos and spreadsheets is expected to surge in the wake of federal legislation requiring companies to make such information readily available in court proceedings.

In December, Congress passed the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, accelerating deadlines for companies to identify and describe electronically searchable information that can be used as evidence in a lawsuit. To comply with requests for such electronically stored information during litigation, companies need to have a plan and tools in place. "

Click here to read the entire article [subscription required.]

By James D. Sherman and Lori E. Steidl in the May 4, 2007 issue of ALM’s The Corporate Counselor.

"In today’s litigation world, corporate counsel struggle to contain the ever-increasing costs of document discovery. The explosion of electronically stored information is often a huge contributor to the expense of discovery. Consultants, vendors and e-discovery software can help bring greater efficiencies and cost savings to the process. But while there’s a dizzying array of options available, they’re not all created equal. Finding the right solution requires that you do your homework.

Before deciding to outsource your next electronic discovery request, take a moment to examine the review practices of your legal service provider or outside counsel. Many legal service providers and law firms are relying on outdated and expensive methods to collect and analyze data for litigation. For example, be wary of solutions that involve conversion of documents into TIFF or PDF format before an initial review for relevance of the underlying data takes place. This practice needlessly creates additional electronic "copies" of vast amounts of data, most of which ultimately prove to be irrelevant and thus are never produced or otherwise used. It may also undermine your ability to take advantage of certain useful characteristics of native format documents that are lost in the conversion process. A step as simple as using e-discovery software that facilitates processing and review of electronic documents in their native format can save your company a great deal of money when it comes to document discovery. "

Click here to read the entire story online.

Written by the Associated Press and posted on MSNBC on May 2, 2007:

"Leahy not accepting White House explanation some may have been lost

WASHINGTON – Senators subpoenaed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Wednesday, ordering him to provide all e-mails related to presidential adviser Karl Rove and the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

"It is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the committee’s inquiry have not been produced," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote in a letter to Gonzales. The subpoena gives Gonzales until May 15 to turn over the information. "

Read the entire story on MSNBC.com here.