Visteon Global Technologies, Inc. v. Garmin International, Inc.

903 F. Supp. 2d 521, 2012 WL 4866351, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147448
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedOctober 12, 2012
DocketCase No. 10-cv-10578
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 903 F. Supp. 2d 521 (Visteon Global Technologies, Inc. v. Garmin International, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Visteon Global Technologies, Inc. v. Garmin International, Inc., 903 F. Supp. 2d 521, 2012 WL 4866351, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147448 (E.D. Mich. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER AFFIRMING THE MAGISTRATE JUDGE’S MAY n, 2012 ORDER (ECF NO. 121)

PAUL D. BORMAN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendant Garmin International, Inc.’s (“Gar-min”) Objections to and Appeal of the Magistrate Judge’s Order Compelling the [524]*524Deposition of Garmin’s In-House Litigation Counsel and Compelling Discovery Into Garmin’s Legal Investigation. (ECF No. 132, Garmin’s Objections.) Plaintiffs Visteon Global Technologies, Inc. and Visteon Technologies, LLC (“Visteon”) filed a response to Garmin’s Objections (ECF No. 144, Visteon’s Sealed Response) and Gar-min filed a reply (ECF No. 145). For the reasons that follow, the Court AFFIRMS the Magistrate Judge’s May 24, 2012 Order.

I. BACKGROUND

This action involves Visteon’s claims that Garmin infringes several separate Visteon patents relating to the function and operation of vehicle navigation devices. The Court issued its Claim Construction Order on December 12, 2011, adopting the Special Master’s original May 2, 2011 Claim Construction Report and adopting the Special Master’s August 16, 2011 Response to the Parties’ Objections to the Special Master’s original Claim Construction Report. (ECF No. 103, Order Adopting Special Master’s Claim Construction.)

The parties are presently before the Court on Garmin’s Objections to Magistrate Judge Mark A. Randon’s May 24, 2012 Order on Visteon’s motion to compel. Visteon’s motion to compel (ECF No. 106), sought the Court’s determination of two discovery disputes that the parties were unable to resolve through meet and confers. Following a hearing on Visteon’s motion to compel discovery, the Magistrate Judge ordered Garmin (1) to produce a 30(b)(6) witness to testify as to the dates when Garmin first became aware of its defenses in this litigation (“Topic 156” or the “date(s) evidence”) and (2) to produce Garmin’s in-house counsel, Sam Korte, to testify regarding Garmin’s design-arounds produced for purposes of this litigation, to the extent the subject matter is not privileged and not work product. (ECF No. 124, 5/24/12 Order.)

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A) and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(a) both provide that a district judge must modify or set aside any portion of a magistrate judge’s non-dispositivé pretrial order found to be “clearly erroneous or contrary to law.” 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A); Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(a). The United States Supreme Court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals have stated that “a finding is ‘clearly erroneous’ when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. U.S. Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948) (explaining the clearly erroneous standard under Rule 52(a)); Hagaman v. Comm’r of Internal Revenue, 958 F.2d 684, 690 (6th Cir.1992) (quoting U.S. Gypsum Co.). See also United States v. Mandycz, 200 F.R.D. 353, 356 (E.D.Mich.2001) (explaining the standard under Rule 72(a)).

This standard does not empower a reviewing court to reverse the Magistrate Judge’s finding because it would have decided the matter differently. Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, N.C., 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985) (interpreting the clearly erroneous standard in Rule 52(a)). The Sixth Circuit has noted that: “[t]he question is not whether the finding is the best or only conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence, or whether it is the one which the reviewing court would draw. Rather, the test is whether there is evidence in the record to support the lower court’s finding, and whether its construction of that evidence is a reasonable one.” Heights Cmty. Cong, v. Hilltop Realty, Inc., 774 F.2d 135, 140 (6th Cir.1985).

“The ‘clearly erroneous’ standard applies only to the magistrate judge’s factual findings; his legal conclusions are re[525]*525viewed under the plenary ‘contrary to law' standard.... Therefore, [the reviewing court] must exercise independent judgment with respect to the magistrate judge’s conclusions of law.” Haworth, Inc. v. Herman Miller, Inc., 162 F.R.D. 289, 291 (W.D.Mich.1995) (citing Gandee v. Glaser, 785 F.Supp. 684, 686 (S.D.Ohio 1992)).

III. ANALYSIS

A. Topic 156 — The Dates on Which Garmin Became Aware of Its Defenses

With regard to Topic 156, which the parties appear to agree relates to Visteon’s willful infringement claim, Garmin argues that it does not intend to use the date(s) on which it became aware of any of its defenses to refute the claim that it willfully infringed Visteon’s patents. The parties’ dispute over Topic 156 centers around whether evidence regarding the date(s) on which Garmin became aware of its defenses to Visteon’s claims is nonetheless relevant in the instant case and, if so, whether the information is privileged.

Proof of willful infringement is established under the two-prong standard set forth in In re Seagate Technology, LLC, 497 F.3d 1360 (Fed.Cir.2007). “[I]t is indisputable that the proper legal standard for willful infringement informs the relevance of evidence relating to that issue and, more importantly here, the proper scope of discovery.” Id. at 1371-72. Under Seagate, willful infringement requires proof of both an objective and a subjective component:

[T]o establish willful infringement, a patentee must show by clear and convincing evidence that the infringer acted despite an objectively high likelihood that its actions constituted infringement of a valid patent. See Safeco [Ins. Co. of Am. v. Burr, 551 U.S. 47, 127 S.Ct. 2201], at 2215 [167 L.Ed.2d 1045 (2007) ]. (“It is [a] high risk of harm, objectively assessed, that is the essence of recklessness at common law.”). The state of mind of the accused infringer is not relevant to this objective inquiry. If this threshold objective standard is satisfied, the patentee must also demonstrate that this objectively-defined risk (determined by the record developed in the infringement proceeding) was either known or so obvious that it should have been known to the accused infringer.

497 F.3d at 1371.

Visteon claims a need to discover evidence regarding the dates on which Gar-min learned of its defenses because “a routine tactic employed by a defendant [in a willful infringement claim] is to suggest the various defenses it possesses prove that it could not have acted with willful disregard of an issued patent.” (ECF No.

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903 F. Supp. 2d 521, 2012 WL 4866351, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/visteon-global-technologies-inc-v-garmin-international-inc-mied-2012.