MOSAID Technologies Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co.
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
348 F. Supp. 2d 332 (2004)
- Written by Sharon Feldman, JD
Facts
MOSAID Technologies Inc. (MOSAID) (plaintiff) brought a patent-infringement action against Samsung Electronics Co. (Samsung) (defendant). MOSAID served discovery requests that did not use the word “e-mail” but broadly defined “document” to include “typed matter,” “other data compilations,” “letters,” “correspondence,” “notes to the files,” “interoffice communications,” and “statements.” Samsung specifically asked for e-mails in its own discovery requests to MOSAID. Pursuant to Samsung’s normal document-retention program, e-mails became inaccessible on a rolling basis. Although Samsung had put a “litigation hold” on the destruction of e-mails for a previous litigation, Samsung did not place a litigation hold after MOSAID filed its action. No e-mails were produced in response to MOSAID’s document requests. The magistrate judge granted MOSAID’s motion for a spoliation-inference jury instruction and attorney’s fees and costs associated with MOSAID’s efforts to obtain discovery and sanctions. Samsung then undertook to retrieve e-mails that had been retained by a litigation hold for another case and retrieved 15 to 20 gigabytes of e-mails and attachments for 200 engineers. Samsung appealed the magistrate judge’s order.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Martini, J.)
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