Key Insight: Court held that ?scanning documents and converting computer data into readable format constitute copying within the meaning of section 1920(4)? but that ?costs associated with storing ESI are not recoverable?
Nature of Case: Misappropriation of trade secrets
Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs related to ESI
Key Insight: Court allowed recovery of costs in categories including, ? ?heavy litigation scanning,? bates labeling in electronic format . . . ?hourly tech time,? ?make 1 blowback set of all PDF files outside off [sic]folders; slipsheet with file name? but declined to allow recovery of ?OCR costs? absent evidence that the parties agreed to make documents searchable
Nature of Case: Taxable costs
Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs
Key Insight: Court awarded costs in favor of defendant, including costs related to electronic discovery: ?We have carefully considered Plaintiff’s objections to the nature of the costs sought to be recovered by Defendant, in particular, to the costs incurred in connection with the production of electronically stored information, but we do not find Plaintiff’s objections to be meritorious. As Defendant points out in its briefings, we have awarded as costs the expense of producing electronically stored information in several other recent cases, and Plaintiff’s objections are based largely on judicial decisions issued by courts in other districts and circuits, including the Eastern District of Missouri and the Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals, which are contrary to the rulings within our Seventh Circuit.?
Electronic Data Involved: ESI (taxable costs)
Key Insight: Finding the reasoning of the Third Circuit in Race Tires America Inc. v. Hoosier Racing Tire Corp., 674 F.3d 158 (3d Cir. 2012) persuasive, the court in this case found only a portion of Defendant?s claimed costs were recoverable: court allowed recovery for the imaging of hard copy files and for uploading hard copy materials into a database for electronic production and also acknowledged that the conversion of documents into TIFF images was recoverable, but declined to allow recovery for ?logical document determination? (?organizing documents to avoid single page production?), ?project management and technical services,? most ?ingestion services,? and ?professional services? such as establishing protocols for processing and quality control measures to ensure those protocols were met
Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs related to ediscovery
Key Insight: Court found that ?costs of converting the documents in the format agreed upon by the parties are properly taxable? but that ?metadata extraction? could not be ?properly analogized to making copies and that such costs were not taxable; where costs associated with metadata extraction were not identified separately from ?production copying, file conversion, and metadata extraction? on invoices, court reduced requested costs by one third
Nature of Case: Patent Infringement
Electronic Data Involved: taxable costs for electronic discovery
Key Insight: Court noted that the Third Circuit has ?persuasively reasoned that ?only the conversion of native files to TIFF (the agreed-upon default format for production of ESI), and the scanning of documents to create digital duplicates are generally recognized as the taxable ?making copies of material,?? (Race Tires Am., Inc. v. Hoosier Racing Tire Corp, 674 F.3d 158 (3d Cir. 2012)) but held that in the present case, the ?precise scope of ? 1920(4) [was] immaterial? because of the parties? contract regarding costs and expenses and declined to deny recovery or reduce the amount sought
Nature of Case: Engineering malpractice
Electronic Data Involved: taxable costs
Key Insight: Court held that costs related to the creation of an electronic database solely for the benefit of Plaintiff?s counsel were not taxable as fees for exemplification
Nature of Case: Securities fraud
Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs
Key Insight: On appeal, the Third Circuit vacated the District Court?s approval of taxable costs related to electronic discovery and remanded with instruction to re-tax in accordance with this opinion. Specifically, the court concluded that the relevant vendors? charges ?would not qualify as fees for ?exemplification?? and that ?of the numerous services the vendors performed, only the scanning of hard copy documents, the conversion of native files to TIFF, and the transfer of VHS tapes to DVD involved ?copying?? and were thus recoverable.
Nature of Case: Antitrust
Electronic Data Involved: Vendor charges related to electronic discovery
Key Insight: District Court approved recovery of costs related to ?OCR Capture?
Nature of Case: Taxable costs
Electronic Data Involved: OCR
Key Insight: Plaintiff objected to Defendant?s bill of costs, including significant costs related to electronic discovery. Citing the recent decision of the Third Circuit in Race Tires America., Inc. v. Hoosier Racing Tire, Corp., the court reduced Defendant?s request for e-discovery costs from $447,694.63 to $2,721.53.
Nature of Case: Patent infringement
Electronic Data Involved: Taxable costs related to ediscovery
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