Tulip Computers International B.V. v. Dell Computer Corp.

210 F.R.D. 100, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19288, 2002 WL 31259973
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedOctober 2, 2002
DocketCiv.A. No. 00-981-RRM
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 210 F.R.D. 100 (Tulip Computers International B.V. v. Dell Computer Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tulip Computers International B.V. v. Dell Computer Corp., 210 F.R.D. 100, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19288, 2002 WL 31259973 (D. Del. 2002).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

THYNGE, United States Magistrate Judge.

This memorandum will address the various discovery related motions filed by Dell and argued before the court, for the most part, on September 4, 2002. On August 9, 2002, Dell filed a motion for reconsideration of this court prior ruling on July 26, allowing the deposition of Michael Dell. D.I. 272. Tulip responded on August 13, 2002. D.I. 279.

Pursuant to the directions from this court during the telephonic conference of July 25, 2002, Dell filed a motion to compel the production of documents withheld on the allegedly improper basis of privilege, to compel supplementation of Tulip’s allegedly inadequate privilege log and to overrule Tulip’s objections to Dell’s Letters of Request. D.I. 27k, %75, 276. Tulip filed a response on August 23, 2002. D.I. 291, 292.

Between the filing of the aforesaid motion by Dell and Tulip’s response, Dell filed 5 additional discovery motions on August 19: Tulip’s alleged refusal to provide contact information for former Tulip employees; Tulip’s inadequate response to Dell’s interrogatory no. 16 in which Dell seeks information regarding Tulip’s review of archived documents in response to Dell’s request for production; Tulip’s refusal to provide a corporate representative to address Tulip’s allegation that Dell acquired Tulip technology from Unisys; Tulip’s refusal to produce materials that were provide Russell Parr, one of Tulip’s testifying expert witnesses; and alleged deficiencies in Tulip’s responses to Dell’s request for admissions. D.I. 282-286. All of these matters, Dell expected to discuss during the oral argument on September 4 (under the guise of judicial economy), which was originally scheduled to address only the privilege log issues. Further, on August 23, Dell filed another discovery matter, the alleged interference by Tulip with Dell’s attempt to depose a former Tulip employee, Mr. Duynisveld. D.I. 289, 290. Tulip responded to this flurry of additional discovery dispute matters on August 30 and September 3, respectively. D.I. 296, 297.

No doubt, the aforementioned is an example of the somewhat tortured discovery history between these two parties. See, D.I. 17k, Memorandum Opinion.1

Dell’s Motion for Reconsideration, D.I. 272

Dell’s motion is directed to the scope of Michael Dell’s deposition. Dell argues that during the July 25, 2002 hearing, Tulip requested for the first time to depose Mr. Dell about “issues surrounding what Dell’s method and Dell’s strategy for whether or not they developed technology internally versus using other people’s technology.” According to Dell, since Tulip’s motion to depose Mr. Dell had previously been limited to his role in determining the specific design of the alleged infringing products, Tulip has failed, for this additional area, to meet its burden to establish that Mr. Dell has “unique or superior personal knowledge of discoverable information,” as required under Liberty [102]*102Mutual Ins. Co. v. Superior Court, 10 Cal. App.4th 1282, 13 Cal.Rptr.2d 363, 366-67 (1992). Tulip responds that Dell’s request is baseless under the Federal Rules for this type of relief. Further, Dell’s request is an inaccurate representation under the “Apex” line of cases.

When faced with the issue of whether Mr. Dell would be deposed, the primary evidence on which this court relied were the lab notes and testimony of Mr. Clark and the e-mails within the engineering group, authored by Mr. Schwartzbott. Unlimited delving into Dell’s method and its strategy of developing technology internally versus using other’s technology does not necessarily “go to the heart of the issue” nor results in “a straightforward deposition.” Exploring with Mr. Dell his conversations or contacts with Mr. Clark as related in Mr. Clark’s notes, exploring what was recorded, the engineering group e-mails, his “directive” or the phasing out of the ISA technology by Dell and his affidavit and exploring his knowledge regarding the information contained in Mr. Riddle’s affidavit and the retention of information on his computer are all within the parameters addressed during the teleconference. .Further, Tulip will be allowed to explore with Mr. Dell the extent of his involvement and his knowledge regarding defendant’s method and strategy of developing the technology that is in issue in this case.

Dell’s Motion to Compel Production, D.I. 274

In its argument, Dell outlined 6 groupings for certain documents that it is requesting. Group 1 are all documents in which Frans Dietz is either an author or recipient. Mr. Dietz is a Dutch patent attorney, and a member of the firm, Vereenigde, who prosecuted the European patent on behalf of Tulip and provided assistance to Peter Michaelson, Tulip’s patent counsel, in the prosecution of the ’621, the U.S. counterpart. Group 2 relate to documents authorized or received by Mr. Murtha, who is associated with Fairfield Resources, a company in the United States in the business of servicing clients in intellectual property and licensing issues. He provided assistance to Tulip in its patent licensing efforts in this country and had been initially contact by Ruprecht Hermans, Tulip’s Dutch attorney.2 Group 3 relates to documents authored or received by Cees Stulemeijer, Tulip’s in-house legal counsel, who had previously worked with the VanD-oorne law firm (Dell’s counsel in Holland). Group 4, consisting of 3 documents regarding communications with W.E.M. ten Cate, whom Dell asserts that Tulip has not identified as a lawyer.3 Group 5 comprises of documents sent to Tulip Computers International B.V. where the specific recipient is not identified. Group 6 are documents sent to or from Vereenigde where the specific author or recipient is not identified. According to Dell, regarding Groups 1 through 3, it is not requesting any documents sent to or from any of Tulip’s licensed attorneys, as Dell defines licensed attorney, but is requesting documents in which a licensed attorney was merely copied or when an attorney is listed in Tulip’s “attorney” column as contained in Tulip’s second supplemental privilege log. As to Groups 2 and 3, Dell claims that it has also excluded documents created after July 31, 2000, based on Mr. van den Berg’s testimony that litigation as of July 2000 was not imminent. Mr. van den Berg is the CEO of Tulip. Based upon Dell’s presentation during oral argument on September 4, 2002, the court estimates that approximately 151 documents have been requested to be produced from Tulip’s privilege log.4

[103]*103Dell’s arguments regarding Dietz (Group 1) and for Stulemeijer (Group 3), as well, focus primarily on the fact that neither are admitted to a bar of any court in the Netherlands, based on Dell’s interpretation of Article 165 of the Netherlands Code of Civil Procedure, which addresses those individuals entitled to invoke the privilege of non-disclosure and the application of the Dutch ease Bruil v. Tital International, NJ 1989, 568.5 D.I. 276, fn. 13 and Ex. 4, 5. Further, Dell also relies upon the declaration of Julius Pinkaers, an advocate (that is, an attorney at law) and the Netherlands Supreme Court decision of Algemene Bank Nederland v. State, December 22, 1989, NJ 1990, 779. See, D.I. 276 Ex. 4, 4C.

According to the similar translations by the parties, in Bruil,

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210 F.R.D. 100, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19288, 2002 WL 31259973, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tulip-computers-international-bv-v-dell-computer-corp-ded-2002.