ChriMar Systems Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc.

312 F.R.D. 560, 93 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 931, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4395, 2016 WL 126556
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJanuary 12, 2016
DocketCase No. 13-cv-01300-JSW (MEJ)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 312 F.R.D. 560 (ChriMar Systems Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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ChriMar Systems Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc., 312 F.R.D. 560, 93 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 931, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4395, 2016 WL 126556 (N.D. Cal. 2016).

Opinion

DISCOVERY ORDER

MARIA-ELENA JAMES, United States Magistrate Judge

INTRODUCTION

This is a patent infringement case in which Plaintiffs ChriMar Systems, Inc. d/b/a CMS Technologies and ChriMar Holdings Company, LLC (collectively “ChriMar”) állege infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,457,260 (the ’250 patent), which covers Power Over Ethernet (“PoE”) products. Compl., Dkt. No. 1. Pending before the Court are two discovery dispute letters from ChriMar and Defendants Cisco Systems, Inc. and Linksys, LLC f/k/a Cisco Consumer Products LLC (collectively “Cisco”). In the first letter, ChriMar and Cisco address a dispute concerning Cisco declining to designate a witness for deposition regarding Topic 8 of ChriMar’s Second Notice of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) Deposition to Cisco. Dkt. No. 298 (“30(b)(6) Ltr.”). In the second letter, they address a dispute concerning a document Cisco is withholding on the basis of privilege. Dkt. No. 299 (redacted version), 300 (unre-daeted version) (“Priv. Ltr.”). Having considered the parties’ positions and the relevant legal authority, the Court issues the following Order.

LEGAL STANDARD

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 provides that a party may obtain discovery “regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case[.]” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1). Factors to consider include “the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in controversy, the parties’ relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.” Id Discovery need not be admissible in evidence to be discoverable. Id However, a court “must limit the frequency or extent of discovery otherwise allowed by [the Federal] [562]*562rules” if “(i) the discovery sought is unreasonably cumulative or duplicative, or can be obtained from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive; (ii) the party seeking discovery has had ample opportunity to obtain the information by discovery in the action; or (iii) the proposed discovery is outside the scope permitted by Rule 26(b)(1).” Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(C).

Additionally, “[t]he court may, for good cause, issue an order to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense,” including by (1) prohibiting disclosure or discovery; (2) conditioning disclosure or discovery on specified terms; (3) preventing inquiry into certain matters; or (4) limiting the scope of disclosure or discovery to certain matters. Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(e)(1). “Rule 26(c) confers broad discretion on the trial court to decide when a protective order is appropriate and what degree of protection is required.” Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 36, 104 S.Ct. 2199, 81 L.Ed.2d 17 (1984).

DISCUSSION

A. 30(b)(6) Letter

ChriMar served its Second Notice of Rule 30(b)(6) Deposition to Cisco on October 28, 2016. 30(b)(6) Ltr. at 3. Topic 8 seeks testimony regarding: “Any use by Cisco of any combination of one or more [Power Devices] and one or more [Power Sourcing Equipments] including any internal or commissioned use in any testing, presentation, instruction, or experimentation, as well as the identity of all personnel involved in, or responsible for, such uses, the loeation(s) of such uses, the timeframes corresponding to such uses, and the particular PDs and PSEs used in the combination(s).” Id. at 3 n.l.

Cisco argues ChriMar failed to timely address its objections to Topic 8. Id. at 6. Cisco maintains it repeatedly attempted to address ChriMar’s request for the information sought by Topic No. 8, offering on multiple occasions to meet and confer about the request, but ChriMar ignored those offers. Id. Instead, ChriMar re-raised the request after multiple depositions of Cisco witnesses occurred in December 2016, and after the December 22, 2016 close of fact discovery. Id. During the parties’ meet and confer about the topic on December 29, Cisco offered to provide an interrogatory response with responsive information, but ChriMar refused. Id. Cisco contends ChriMar’s failure to timely address this issue “provides reasonable grounds for rejecting ChriMar’s belated request altogether,” but it “remains willing to provide information responsive to an appropriately narrowed version of Topic No. 8 in the form of an interrogatory response, which should fully provide ChriMar with anything it could reasonably need.” Id.

Cisco further argues Topic 8 is not reasonably particular and as phrased would impose enormous burden on Cisco without adequate justification. Id at 6. It notes the topic seeks detailed information concerning Cisco’s use of PoE equipment, “anywhere in the world, without any temporal limitation, as well as the identity of any individuals involved in or responsible for such use.” Id. As Cisco is a worldwide company, with over 70,000 employees (including over 35,000 employees in the U.S.) and numerous locations around the world, including over 100 locations in the U.S. alone, Cisco argues that responding to the literal terms of ChriMar’s request “would impose enormous, and unnecessary, burden on Cisco, disproportionate to any conceivable need in this action.” Id. Accordingly, Cisco maintains ChriMar is not entitled to a deponent on such an “expansive fishing expedition” with no legitimate justification for imposing this burden.

ChriMar argues its requests were timely and that Cisco informed it that preparation to testify regarding ChriMar’s noticed topics would not be an issue. Id. at 4. It maintains it followed up with requests for witnesses at least seven times, on November 4, 6, 9, 17, and 24, and again on December 2 and 9, and at no time prior to the December 29, 2015 meet and confer did Cisco give ChriMar reason to believe it required a meet and confer as a condition for providing a witness on Topic 8. Id. at 4. ChriMar notes Cisco, on November 25, 2015, informed Chri-Mar it “d[id] not anticipate that preparation of Cisco’s witnesses to testify regarding ChriMar’s noticed topics, subject to Cisco’s [563]*563objections, will be an issue, as we discussed on August 5, 2015.” Id. Thus, ChriMar maintains it had no reason to believe Cisco had any concerns with any of ChriMar’s deposition topics. Despite this, at the parties’ December 29 meet and confer, Cisco informed ChriMar it refused to present a witness on Topic 8 because the parties did not previously meet and confer, and ChriMar’s request was therefore untimely. Id. at 3.

Rule 30 requires a corporation to designate a deponent sufficiently knowledgeable to testify on the corporation’s behalf “about information known or reasonably available to the organization.” Fed. R. Civ. P.

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312 F.R.D. 560, 93 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 931, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4395, 2016 WL 126556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chrimar-systems-inc-v-cisco-systems-inc-cand-2016.