Patent Law

As a follow-up to Michael Solomita's and Steven Gauthier's January 23, 2008 guest post titled, "Learning from Qualcomm's Discovery Errors" is today's Sedona Conference's "Voices from the Desert" program on the court's e-discovery sanctions order.

Join the panel, which will include Robert D. Owen, Fulbright & Jaworski; Bruce Bigelow, business writer for the San Diego Union Tribune; plaintiff attorney Bill Butterfield; and retired U.S. Magistrate Judge John Carroll, now Dean of Cumberland School of Law at Samford University as they discuss Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp. and the sanctions order issued by the United States Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of California.   

In the case, the judge ordered the plaintiff to pay all the defendant's attorneys' fees and costs, totaling $8.5 million, for "monumental and intentional discovery violation." In addition, the court found that six Qualcomm attorneys engaged in "intentionally hiding or recklessly ignoring relevant documents... and blindly accepting Qualcomm's unsupported assurances that its document search was adequate." The court ordered the six attorneys to submit to state ethics authorities, and ordered Qualcomm's legal department to engage in a comprehensive internal investigation of its discovery practices, and to report its findings and recommendations to the court.

The case and the sanctions order raise significant questions about the problems associated with conducting broad electronic discovery in large business organizations, the relationship between inside and outside counsel conducting such discovery, the sanctioning power of the court, and the role ethical considerations should play in e-discovery. In the 90 minute program, the expert panel will discuss the background of the case and important issues raised by the case.  They will also answer questions from the audience in a Q&A session.

More information and registration details are available here.