Burlodge Ltd. v. Standex International Corp.

257 F.R.D. 12, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35649
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedApril 28, 2009
DocketMisc. Action No. 08-525 (CKK/JMF)
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 257 F.R.D. 12 (Burlodge Ltd. v. Standex International Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burlodge Ltd. v. Standex International Corp., 257 F.R.D. 12, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35649 (D.D.C. 2009).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JOHN M. FACCIOLA, United states Magistrate Judge.

Currently before the court is a Motion to Compel Compliance with a subpoena, pursuant to Rule 45 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, filed by Burlodge Limited. Motion of Burlodge Limited for an Order Compelling the Department of Veterans Affairs to Comply %vith Subpoena [# 1] (“Mot. to Comp.”).

BACKGROUND

This Motion to Compel arises out of a patent infringement case, currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, regarding a method of preparing and serving food using “rethermal-ization” or “retherm” food carts. Both parties in the underlying ease have a right to sell the retherm carts, but only Burlodge Limited (“Burlodge”), the defendant and counter-plaintiff, has the ability to grant others the right to use its patented method of preparing and serving food. Burlodge claims that Standex International Corporation (“Standex”), the plaintiff and counter-defendant in the underlying case, has been selling retherm carts and providing third-parties with Burlodge’s patented method of preparing and serving food. During discovery, Burlodge found that Standex had sold re-therm carts, called Unitron 7’s, to the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (“DVA”).

On April 4, 2008, Burlodge served a subpoena on the DVA seeking information related to the DVA’s use, and purchase of the Unitron 7, as well as the DVA’s correspondence with Standex related to the purchase and training for the use of Unitron 7’s.

Specifically, Burlodge first served a notice of deposition pursuant to Rule 30(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, denominating the following topics for the deposition:

1. The meal preparation, delivery and dispensation methods employed by any Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center [14]*14(“VAMC”) facility using Unitron 7 equipment;
2. The purchase of each Unitron 7 product;
3. Communications or correspondence between USE CO (and/or Standex Corporation) and the DVA;
4. The cost to prepare, deliver and dispense a meal; and
5. Costs billed or recovered in connection with meal preparation, delivery, and dispensation services to patients and other companies and organizations (such as a sister company, for example).

Mot. to Comp. Ex. 1, at 4. Burlodge also asks that the DVA produce the following documents:

1. All documents related to the purchase of Unitron 7 equipment;
2. All requests for proposal that led to the purchase of Unitron 7 equipment;
3. All proposals for rethermalization systems;
4. The file relating to the Unitron 7 system;
5. Documents relative to systems considered in addition to the Unitron 7;
6. Documents sufficient to show the costs involved in preparing and dispensing a meal;
7. Documents sufficient to establish what amounts are billed and/or recovered for meals prepared and/or dispensed with Unitron 7 equipment (or what amounts are recovered for receiving a meal prepared and dispensed by any VAMC facility utilizing USECO/UNI-TRON brand equipment);
8. Documents which evidence (or are sufficient to establish) any profit made in providing meals to customers or consumers (or other recipients of meals (e.g. one entity to another entity)); and
9. All videos showing the Unitron 7 equipment.

Mot. to Comp. Ex. 1, at 5.

The DVA decided not to comply with Bur-lodge’s entire subpoena based upon the DVA’s so-called Touhy regulations,1 which establish certain factors that the DVA considers when deciding whether to comply with a request for production of documents or testimony in legal proceedings where the DVA is a third party. See 38 C.F.R. § 14.800.2

A. Burlodge

First, Burlodge contends that Rule 45, and not the Touhy regulations, provides the controlling standard as to whether DVA must comply with the subpoena. Mot. to Comp, at 4-5.

Second, Burlodge contends that in order to prove its underlying claim against Standex, it must prove (1) direct infringement of its patent by Standex customers and (2) that Standex either knew that its customers would infringe the patent or assisted its customers in infringing the patent. Id. at 3-4. The DVA’s potential use of Burlodge’s method would provide Burlodge with the “direct infringement” necessary to prove its claim. Id. Burlodge also seeks information related to communications between the DVA and Standex in order to prove that Standex assisted the DVA or had knowledge that the DVA would use Burlodge’s patent. Id. The “central inquiry,” according to Burlodge, is (1) whether the DVA purchased retherm carts from Standex and (2) whether Bur-lodge’s patented method of dispensing food was used. Id. at 2. Accordingly, Burlodge contends that the information sought is “highly relevant” to its claim and within the scope of discovery under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1). Id. at 3-4.

Lastly, Burlodge contends that the Narrowing Table it has provided to the DVA to limit discovery to those VAMC facilities that [15]*15potentially use its patented method cures any potential undue burden imposed on the DVA by the subpoena. Id. at 5. The forty facilities provided in the Narrowing Table were discovered by Burlodge from Standex pursuant to discovery in the underlying case. Reply Memorandum in Support of Burlodge Limited’s Motion to Compel [# 8] (“Reply”) at 3; see Exhibit 13 to Reply.

B. DVA

The DVA takes the position that the Touhy regulations should provide the appropriate standard to determine whether it has to comply with the subpoena. In denying compliance with Burlodge’s original subpoena, the DVA General Counsel found that several factors in the DVA’s Touhy regulations militated against complying with Bur-lodge’s request for discovery, and accordingly denied the request. Opposition to Burlodge Limited’s Motion to Compel [# 5] (“Opp.”) at 3. Alternatively, the DVA claims that if the government has directly infringed upon Burlodge’s patent, the plaintiffs sole remedy is a suit against the Federal government in the Court of Federal Claims. See 28 U.S.C. § 1498(a).

Second, according to the DVA, Burlodge’s only basis for suspecting that the DVA is engaging in direct infringement is that the Atlanta VA bought retherm carts from Stan-dex. Id. at 5-6.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
257 F.R.D. 12, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35649, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burlodge-ltd-v-standex-international-corp-dcd-2009.