Weather Underground, Incorporated v. Navigation Catalyst Systems, Incorporated et al

Filing 201

DECLARATION by William A. Delgado re 193 Response to Motion filed by Connexus Corporation, Firstlook, Incorporated, Navigation Catalyst Systems, Incorporated (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit K, # 2 Exhibit L, # 3 Exhibit M, # 4 Exhibit N, # 5 Exhibit O, # 6 Exhibit P, # 7 Exhibit Q, # 8 Exhibit R, # 9 Exhibit S, # 10 Exhibit T, # 11 Exhibit U, # 12 Exhibit V, # 13 Exhibit W) (Delgado, William)

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EXHIBITT A West Court Reporting Services transcript, reported by LiveNote Certified Partner: Bienenstock CERTIFIED COpy In the United States District Court For the Eastern District of Michigan **Confidential** Deposition Of Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D. August 3, 2010 The Weather Underground, Inc. v. Navigation Catalyst Systems; Inc., et al. Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D. Confidential 8/3/2010 1 Q. Was there anything else that struck you as inaccurate? 2 A. Yes. He also thought that I gave permission to the 3 Weather Underground of Hong Kong to use our name. 4 did not give them permission. 5 Q. I Do you know if anybody else associated with Weather Underground gave them permission? 6 7 A. I do not believe so to the best of my recollection. 8 Q. Is there anything else in Mr. Steremburg's deposition transcript that was inaccurate? 9 10 A. To the best of my knowledge, no. 11 Q. Other than the deposition transcript of Mr. Steremburg, did you review any other documents? 12 13 A. Yes, provided by my attorney, so that would fall under attorney/client privilege. 14 MR. SCHAEFER: 15 Just so you know, basically 16 anything that you and I discussed or you and Anthony 17 discussed obviously is privileged. 18 which documents you looked at, but beyond that, don't 19 share anything that we talked about. 20 THE WITNESS: 21 MR. SCHAEFER: 22 Q. Okay. About those documents. BY MR. DELGADO: 23 He can ask you And that was going to be my next question, which 24 documents did you review in preparation for today's 25 deposition? Westlaw Deposition Services 800.548.3668 Ext. 1 Page 10 8/3/2010 Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D. Confidential 1 Q. It says while working on his Ph.D. he cofounded the Weather Underground in 1995, is that correct? 2 3 A. Weather Underground, Incorporated. 4 Q. Weather Underground, Incorporated. 5 A. Yes. 6 Q. Let me ask you about that. When was your first I 7 guess encounter with the name Weather Underground 8 while you were studying at the University of Michigan? 9 A. It occurred when my advisor, Perry Sampson, advocated 10 using that name for an educational weather project 11 based upon software I had written. 12 Q. What year was that? 13 A. I'm pretty sure it was 1991. 14 Q. And did the software that you had created have a name? 15 A. UM-weather. 16 Q. And did Mr. Sampson tell you why he was suggesting that name for your software project? 17 18 A. Yes, he said it was because since this weather project 19 got its start at the University of Michigan, 20 there was a radical group that got its start at the 21 University of Michigan named Weather Underground, he 22 thought it would be a cute tongue in cheek reference 23 to the '60s radical group. 24 25 Q. and also Do you know if Mr. Sampson was involved In that group, the 1960s group? Westlaw Deposition Services 800.548.3668 Ext. 1 Page 16 Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D. Confidential 1 Q. 8/3/2010 Are you aware of any non-functioning entities other than the '60s radical group? 2 3 A. No. 4 Q. When did you first hear of the Weather Underground group of Hong Kong? 5 6 A. I believe it was in 1992 when a fellow named Clarence 7 Fong E-mailed me and asked if he could have a copy of 8 my UN-weather software! and I supplied it to him for 9 free! and at that point he wrote back and said I'm 10 going to name this -- I'm going to run the software 11 and call it the Weather Underground of Hong Kong. So when he informed me that he was calling 12 13 it the Weather Underground of Hong Kong! that's when I 14 first became aware of the usage of Weather 15 Underground. 16 Q. Okay. What was your response to Mr. Fong? 17 A. I was flattered. 18 Q. They're still in operation today as best as you know? 19 A. Yes. I should qualify that. I'm not sure they're 20 still running myoId code from 1991. 21 surprised. 22 Q. I would be Are you familiar with any other entity that uses the phrase wunder with a U in it as part of their name? 23 24 A. No. 25 Q. In your position at Weather Underground! do you have Westlaw Deposition Services 800.548.3668 Ext. 1 Page 20 Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D. Confidential 1 Q. 8/3/2010 Prior to that conversation with Mr. Schwerzler, when g~ess 2 was the I 3 you had with one of your business partners about the 4 lawsuit outside of a board of directors meeting? 5 A. the second most recent conversation Jeff Ferguson and I share an office, so I would say on 6 average once a month we discuss the latest information 7 from Enrico. 8 Q. Where's that office? 9 A. It's 300 North Fifth Avenue, number 240, Ann Arbor. 10 Q. Are you the only two employees for Weather Underground in that office? 11 12 A. No, we have an accountant part time that also works there. 13 14 Q. What is that person's name? 15 A. Kelly L-U-C-K. And once a month our two customer support people come in the office and work. 16 17 Q. Otherwise they work remotely? 18 A. Yes. 19 Q. Have you ever had any communications with any person 20 who works at one of the companies that was named as a 21 defendant in the lawsuit? 22 A. No. 23 Q. To the best of your knowledge were any of the domain 24 names that are the subject of the lawsuit ever offered 25 to Weather Underground for sale? Westlaw Deposition Services 800.548.3668 Ext. 1 Page 35 Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D. Confidential 1 A. No. 2 Q. You are the author of the blog WunderBlog? 3 A. It's called Jeff Mast.ers' s WunderBlog. 4 Q. Are there other contributors? 5 A. Yes. 6 Q. Who else is a contributor to the WunderBlog? 7 A. 8/3/2010 When I'm on vacation Shaun Tanner and Rob Carver fill in for me. 8 9 Q. And how long have you been authoring WunderBlog? 10 A. Since 2005. 11 Q. Do you recall what month you started? 12 A. Yes, it was April. 13 Q. Does the WunderBlog blog only appear on Weather Underground websites? 14 15 A. No. 16 Q. Where else does it appear? 17 A. I believe it appears on something called blogburst.com. 18 19 Q. Do you know what blogburst.com is? 20 A. They're a site that makes money by selling ads on pages that feature other people's blogs. 21 22 Q. Does Weather Underground have a relationship with blogburst.com? 23 24 A. No. 25 Q. So how is it that WunderBlog appears on blogburst.com? Westlaw Deposition Services 800.548.3668 Ext. 1 Page 36 1 CERTIFICATE OF NOTARY . 2 . STATE OF MICHIGAN.) 3 4 ) SS COUNTY OF OAKLAND 5 6 I, KATHRYN E. ADKINS, certify that this 7 deposition was taken before me on the date 8 hereinbefore set forth; that the foregoing questions 9 and answers were recorded by me stenogJ?aphical;L.y: .and. reduced to computer transcription; 'that this is a 11 true, full and correct transcript of my stenographic 12 notes so taken; and that 13 counsel to', either party nor interested,. in the event + am not related to, nor of , 14 ". of this cause. 15 16 17 ... " 18 19 20 21 22 KATHRYN E. '. 'ADKINS, CSR-4'697 23 Notary Public, 24 Oakland County, Michigan 25 My Commission expires: April 10, 2013 ~

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