Motion to compel third party discovery is granted
Software Rights Archive, LLC v. Google, Inc., et al., Misc. No. 07-017-JJF, May 21 , 2009.
Farnan J. Movants’ motion to compel the production of documents by third parties is granted.
Before the Court is movants’ motion to compel the production of documents by third parties pursuant to Rule 45. The discovery dispute arises from two ongoing infringement actions, one in Texas and one in California. Movants seek discovery that is critical to those actions. Movants contend that after serving the third parties with subpoenas, respondents raised a series of objections and otherwise refused to produce the documents. The Court grants the motion noting that while it is appropriate to consider respondent’s status as non-parties, there is no absolute rule that a party must first seek documents from an opposing party before seeking them from a non-party. Here, respondents are related to an opposing party and there is ample reason to believe that respondents have a stake in the outcome of this litigation. In addition, movants seek documents pertaining to the relationship between the respondents and the opposing party and the patents-in-suit. Moreover, there is reason to believe that respondents may have unique documents. Finally, respondents have failed to establish undue burden.
