The blogosphere is discovering that discovery requests in lawsuits can be complicated. Sometimes, what seems like a huge win for one company is really just a procedural maneuver to limit their eventual losses.
Cue the “dun dun” and let’s review what has happened so far between Apple and Motorola, including yesterday’s ruling that is not the loss for Apple many people are saying it is.
On June 11, a huge trial will begin (11-cv-08540, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Chicago) between Apple and Motorola. Both companies have been hard at work doing whatever they can get away with to prepare. Apple filed a discovery request for information from Motorola about about the development of the Android operating system, as well as information regarding Google’s pending $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola on March 2. Judge Richard A. Posner ordered Motorola to comply on March 5.
Judge Posner’s ruling was broad. According to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, it was "almost an invitation for Apple's lawyers to conduct a fishing expedition of enormous proportions." Which is exactly what Apple did, filing a request covering 86 topics and requesting 80 categories of "documents and things". With a blank check from the court, Cupertino lawyers swung for the fences.
Motorola, however, wasn’t going to give it up so easily. On March 16, Apple filed that Motorola had failed to comply with the request, and according to Bloomberg, included a copy of a March 16 email from Motorola attorney Amanda Williamson to Apple counsel Robert Vlasis objecting to the scope of the request. Motorola also filed an objection to the request, under seal, with the court.
Give me...all of your documents, ever.
On Monday, Judge Posner agreed with Motorola’s objection, and told Apple they needed to narrow their request and be more specific. "The motion is vague and overbroad and Motorola’s objections are persuasive," Judge Posner stated. "If Apple desires a further court order compelling production of data within the scope of the March 5 order it will have to narrow its request to a manageable and particularized set of documents."
Apple didn’t "lose a bid" to the information. Judge Posner, somewhat of a legal rock star and recognized as the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century, didn’t "reverse his position" or "realize he got it wrong." Apple saw an opportunity to collect as much data as they could before the upcoming trial, and went for it. Motorola did exactly what their lawyers should have done, and maneuvered to limit the damage, and Judge Posner made the right call. At the end of the process, Motorola will comply with the March 5 order, and will turn over information to Apple. Probably not everything Apple would wish for, but certainly more than Motorola will want.
Well, if you had plans to invite any of Apple's in-house legal team to any BBQ this June, you might want to just scratch them off of your invite list right now.
As FOSS Patents points out, in June will be four important U.S. courtroom events: three trials and one hearing on a preliminary injunction motion.
- May 31-June 6: ITC hearing on Apple's complaint against Samsung
- June 4-June 15: ITC hearing on Samsung's complaint against Apple
- June 7: hearing for a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus
- June 11: start of Apple v. Motorola Mobility trial in Chicago (with the suquel, MMI's claims against Apple will be tried immediately thereafter)
Summer blockbusters, indeed!
Adrian writes the weekly Law & Apple column for MacLife.com. Follow him on Twitter, or subscribe to him on Facebook.
