Melian Labs Inc. v. Triology LLC

Filing 65

ORDER by Judge Kandis A. Westmore regarding 57 8/20/14 Joint Discovery Letter Brief. (kawlc1, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 9/4/2014)

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1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 8 9 MELIAN LABS INC., Plaintiff, v. Case No. 13-cv-04791-SBA (KAW) ORDER REGARDING 8/20/14 JOINT LETTER TRIOLOGY LLC, Defendant. Dkt. No. 57 10 United States District Court Northern District of California 11 12 13 On August 20, 2014, the parties filed a joint discover letter concerning the sufficiency of 14 Plaintiff Melian Labs, Inc.’s document production of electronically stored information. (8/20/14 15 Joint Letter, “Joint Letter,” Dkt. No. 57.) 16 17 18 19 Upon review of the joint letter, the Court DENIES Triology’s request to compel Melian’s production of all emails and spreadsheets in native format. I. BACKGROUND Plaintiff Melian Labs, Inc. (“Melian”) seeks a declaratory judgment that its MYTIME 20 website and mobile application does not infringe the alleged MYTIME trademark used by 21 Defendant Triology, LLC (“Triology”), but rather that Triology’s use of MYTIME infringes on 22 Melian’s senior trademark rights. (Compl., Dkt. No. 1.) Triology filed a counterclaim for 23 trademark infringement and related causes of action, as well as for withdrawal of Plaintiff’s 24 trademark application for MYTIME. (Dkt. No. 9.) 25 26 27 28 On March 26, 2014, the parties filed a case management conference statement (referred to as the “Joint Rule 26(f) Report”), and informed the district court that With respect to the production of electronic data and information, the parties agree that the production of metadata beyond the following fields are not necessary in this lawsuit absent a showing of a compelling need: Date Sent, Time Sent, Date Received, Time Received, To, From, CC, BCC, and Email Subject. The parties agree to produce documents electronic form in paper, PDF, or TIFF format, and spreadsheets and certain other electronic files in native format when it is more practicable to do so. 1 2 3 4 5 6 (Dkt. No. 37 at 10.) Melian began its document production on June 23, 2014. (Joint Letter at 5.) Since June 30, 2014, Melian has produced 1218 pages of documents. Id. at 1. 7 On August 1, 2014, Triology complained about the format of Melian’s document 8 production of its electronically stored information (“ESI”). (Joint Letter at 5.) Triology claims 9 that these pdfs were stripped of all metadata in violation of the agreement of the parties and that 10 United States District Court Northern District of California 11 12 the spreadsheets were not produced in native format. Id. at 3-4. Melian disagrees. Id. at 5. On August 20, 2014, the parties filed a joint letter addressing the sufficiency of Melian’s production of ESI. 13 14 II. DISCUSSION Triology claims that Melian has failed to comply with its discovery obligations with 15 respect to the production of ESI and has reneged on its agreement with Triology regarding the 16 form of production for ESI by stripping its documents of the very metadata that it agreed to 17 produce. (Joint Letter at 1.) Melian argues that it has satisfied its discovery obligations under the 18 Federal Rules and the agreement, because it has produced electronic documents in “paper, PDF or 19 TIFF format” and was only required to produce ESI in native format when it was “more 20 practicable to do so.” Id. at 5. 21 22 Specifically, Triology seeks to compel the production of emails and Excel spreadsheets in their native format. 23 A. 24 Triology contends that Melian’s production of “7 large PDF image documents, which each Emails 25 appear to be a compilation of ESI improperly collected and produced,” are violative of Federal 26 Rule of Civil Procedure 34(b)(2)(E), because they were not produced in their native format and are 27 not reasonably usable. (Joint Letter at 6.) Triology further contends that the documents were not 28 forensically collected. 2 1 Melian contends that it is not required to forensically collect documents, and that Triology 2 really objects to the document production because the documents were not produced in Triology’s 3 preferred format. (Joint Letter at 8.) Further, Melian states that by the time Triology complained 4 of the format on August 1, 2014, it had already concluded the bulk of its collection, review, and 5 processing of its emails for production. (Joint Letter at 5.) Melian argues that Triology’s demand 6 for all metadata for every single document, including those already produced, is unreasonable. Id. 7 Melian further provides that its email accounts are hosted by Gmail, and it has produced email 8 printouts directly from Gmail.com or through Microsoft Outlook. Id. at 5-6. 9 Triology’s complaint is purely one of form and, at this juncture, it is not claiming that Melian’s production is incomplete. Rule 34(b) only requires that the parties produce documents as 11 United States District Court Northern District of California 10 they are kept in the usual course of business or in the form ordinarily maintained unless otherwise 12 stipulated. Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(b)(2)(E). The parties’ Joint Rule 26(f) Report is a stipulation, and, 13 therefore, Rule 34(b) does not govern. Further, the Joint Rule 26(f) Report does not require that 14 all ESI be produced electronically. Instead, it states that ESI may be produced in paper, PDF or 15 TIFF. (Dkt. No. 37 at 10.) That producing the documents in a searchable format would ease 16 Triology’s review does not render Melian’s production deficient. Triology fails to articulate why 17 metadata is important to emails, when every email should contain the information sought on the 18 face of the document. To the extent that emails have this information cut off or it is not apparent 19 from the face of the email (i.e. as may be the case with BCC), Triology is entitled to the complete 20 email with the agreed upon metadata (see Dkt. No. 37 at 10), and Melian must provide it upon 21 request. 22 23 Notwithstanding, Triology’s request to compel the production of all emails in a searchable or native format is denied. 24 B. 25 Triology contends that Melian has failed to comply with the Joint Rule 26(f) Report by 26 Spreadsheets refusing to produce all spreadsheets in native format. (Joint Letter at 10.) 27 Melian admits that some of its spreadsheet printouts were difficult to read, and, in those 28 cases, it produced the spreadsheets in native format (Excel) upon request. Id. Melian contends, 3 1 however, that the parties never agreed to produce all spreadsheets in native format. Id. Rather, 2 they only agreed to produce electronic files in native format when it is more practicable to do so. 3 Id. 4 A responding party may generally produce documents in the format of their choice. 5 Further, despite Triology’s contention to the contrary, the Joint Rule 26(f) Report does not require 6 the production of ESI in native format. Thus, Melian cannot be compelled to produce its Excel 7 spreadsheets in native format. The Court trusts, however, that should any other disputes regarding 8 readability or legibility arise, Melian will produce spreadsheets that are easily readable without 9 seeking court intervention. 10 United States District Court Northern District of California 11 12 13 III. CONCLUSION In light of the foregoing, Triology’s request to compel the production of ESI documents in their native format is DENIED. The Court notes that both parties share similar complaints with regard to the usability of 14 the document productions and the sufficiency of those productions. Thus, the parties are ordered 15 to meet and confer in good faith before seeking further court intervention. 16 17 18 19 IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: September 4, 2014 ______________________________________ KANDIS A. WESTMORE United States Magistrate Judge 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 4

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