Unfair Competition – Electronic Discovery Law

Optrics Inc. v. Barracuda Networks, Inc. (N.D. Cal. Feb. 4, 2021)

Feb 04 2021

Key Insight: The Plaintiff in litigation over claims of trademark infringement, unfair competition and breach of contract failed to preserve and destroyed discoverable electronic data, and similarly, failed to prepare for 30(b)(6) depositions. Moreover, there were repeated delays (and time extensions) in Plaintiff responding to Defendant’s discovery requests. In doing so, the Plaintiff repeatedly disobeyed discovery orders issued by the Court.

The litigation settled while discovery was pending. The Defendant moved for sanctions against the Plaintiff for its conduct in discovery, and the Court, pursuant to FRCP 37(b), awarded sanctions against Plaintiff and its counsel, jointly and severally. Plaintiff’s former counsel subsequently claimed that it should not be held liable for the sanctions because it was unable to control the conduct of its client in responding to discovery order(s) and requests.

Nature of Case: Intellectual Property, Trademark Infringement, Contracts, Unfair Competition

Electronic Data Involved: Email, Electronic Files, Hard Drives.

Case Summary

NY Machinery v. The Korean Cleaners Monthly (D. N.J. 2020)

Jan 06 2020

Key Insight: This dispute was over which party was obligated to translate (or pay for the cost of translating) documents that were produced by Defendants (in response to document requests) into English. Plaintiffs filed a Motion to Compel Defendants to translate the documents and/or pay for the cost of translation, The Court denied it, finding that Defendants were neither obligated to translate the documents nor responsible for the cost(s) of translation. However, the court noted in a footnote that a party that produces documents in response to an interrogatory may be required to provide translations.

Nature of Case: Unfair Competition, Defamation

Electronic Data Involved: Documents

Case Summary

Tag:Unfair Competition