PA Advisors, LLC v. Google Inc. et al

Filing 427

Third MOTION in Limine Defendants' Motion in Limine No. 3 by Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc.. (Attachments: #1 Exhibit Novikov Decl., #2 Exhibit A, #3 Text of Proposed Order)(Perlson, David)

PA Advisors, LLC v. Google Inc. et al

Doc. 427 Att. 2

EXHIBIT A

Dockets.Justia.com

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS MARSHALL DIVISION

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NO.2:07-CV-480-DF 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 251 Job No.: 212395
Deposition of ILYA GELLER, taken by and before JOYCE SILVER, a Certified Shorthand Reporter and Notary Public of the State of New York, and, PHILIP GLAUBERSON, Videographer, held at the office of STROOCK, STROOCK & LAVAN, 767 Third Avenue, New York, New York. VS. GOOGLE INC., et al., PA ADVISORS, LLC,

Plaintiff,

Defendants.

DATE:
TIME:

August 19, 2009
9:47 a.m.

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128 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
251 Q. ILYA GELLER Good afternoon, Mr. Geller. I'd like to

ask you a few questions. I understand that it's getting later in the day and you mentioned that you're getting tired. feeling? Can you tell us how you're

A.

Yes, T am tired a lot because, you see. Are -- are you okay to answer questions

Q·

for a little bit? A. Q. A. QJust a little, yes, a little bit, please. Where did you grow up? Russia, Ulyanovsk, middle Russia. And when did you immigrate to the

United States? A. Q. A.
Q. A.

12th of December, 1992. When were you born, Mr. Geller? 4th of June, 1969.
1969? Yes.

Q.

So you're about 23 years old when you

immigrated; is that right?
A. Yes, I am.

Q·

Did you -- so you did your early

education in -- in Russia?
A. Yes, I did.

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129 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. A.
ILYA GELLER

What did you study in Russia? Civil engineering and also I study Mainframe. Mainframe and civil

mainframe computer. engineering. Q· education.

A little bit. Tell us a little bit about your I don't know how the education system

works in Russia, so tell us a little bit about how the education system works from early school, elementary or grammar school on. A. I studied a lot of science. I studied I studied civil engineering, I

mathematics, physics.

studied different kinds of mechanics, whatever, because it was required in high school, but it was not the one -- it wasn't the education -- the the

education I looked for because I -- because it didn't give me what I looked for. And actually I was in college for only four years because usually five years are required. At the end of my fourth year, I

left the college and actually I didn't study anything else in Russia. It was '90 -- 194, 193, I don't remember exactly. Q.
A. not sure.

That was 1990 or 1991; is that right?
Yes, I believe so, but I'm not sure. I'm

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130 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Q. A.
ILYA GELLER

Where did you go to college in Russia? The same college in the same city

Ulyanovsk Polytechnical Institute. Q· family. And tell me a little bit about your Your -- did you come from a big family? How

many brothers and sisters did you have? A. T -- I have only one brother -- brother.

The family is in Russian at the time. We are not big and my parents had only two children, me and my brother. My brother was a civil engineer and he --

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he continues the same career. He became estimator in the companies -- a company. I don't know which one. He became an estimator, he makes money, right. And my father, he was also a civil engineer. whatever. Civil engineer and he build factories, My mother was a teacher. She taught Right. But finally we

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economy in college.

immigrated to this country and my brother, like I told you, continued his career and my mother become -- she's old and she became -- she got SSI and now she retires. Q. A. Q. Father died in here.

When did your father pass away? 197, September of '97. And did your mother work when she came

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131 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 mother. here? A. Q. A. Q. Yes, she did. And what did she do? She was a teacher in college. And tell me a little bit about your
ILYA GELLER

your mother and father, if you can, sort of their background. A. Nothing special. My father was just a

manager, civil engineer. factory. Factories.

He managed something called

He built factories and my

mother, she was just a teacher. Nothing -- nothing extraordinary. Q. Nothing -- nothing that special.

Were your parents survivors of the

concentration camps? A. Yes, my mother was in a concentration

camp but, fortunately for her, she survived. She was two years old and -- when it began and actually she lost a lot in the concentration camp. My father, he was more lucky than my He was lucky -- luckier then my mother. He

could escape Germans and spend what time in the part that wasn't occupied. So I was just -- my parents

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were lucky, yes, and µ--- but, actually, my parents' families were killed by Germans in concentration

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ILYA GELLER

camps and during the war. Yes. Q. What was it like for you growing up as a

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Jewish person in --- in Russia? A. Not pleasant, not pleasant at all because

all the -- of anti-Semitism. And also I grew up in a small provincial town and it was awful. Because you see I had nothing to do. I am a creator. I have a spirit of creator. I -- yes, and it wasn't -- could I ask the translator? (Speaks Russian.)
MR. BERELEKHIS: atmosphere I grew up. It was a very stifling

A. this town.

Yes, definitely stifling atmosphere in Right. And I decided --- finally I

decided that I have nothing to find in Russia, especially after Perestroika, and I decided to escape to the United States because I had nothing in there. Q. What did you want to do when you came --

why did you decide to come to the United States?
A. I -- it's very strange, I know,

especially it was strange for my parents and for all my relatives. I wanted to become a scientist and

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I -- I decided to start from philosophy because I studied precise sciences like math and physics for

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133 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 do it. Q. And when did you start in college? You
ILYA GELLER many years, and -- but they didn't give me satisfaction, and I decided to try philosophy. So when I came to America, I tried to go -- to go to college and to study philosophy.

And did you go to college in America when you came here to study philosophy? A. Yes, I came to Brooklyn College and I

studied philosophy in Brooklyn College till I could. Q. A. Until what? Till I could, until I can do it -- could

immigrated in 1992? A. '94. '94. Before I started another

college I start computer science, I don't remember mostly mainframe. college. I I don't remember the name of the

can't give you the dates -- dates, but I

studied computer science for half of the year goes something like this. Is it common or was it common in your experience for -- you mentioned that you studied precise sciences earlier? A. Q. Uh-huh. And that you spent many years doing that.

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134 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. A. Right? A.
Q. ILYA GELLER

Yes, right.
And is it sort of a natural progression

to study philosophy after that in your experience? MR. CANNON: Objection, leading.

Go ahead. I think, yes. Yes, because T didn't find

anything what I looked for, I didn't find it. I couldn't find it in precise sciences. In math or physics or whatever, I couldn't find what -- or chemistry, I studied a lot of things because in Russia in college we teach you everything. I knew chemistry. I knew physics. I knew mathematics. Z

knew many other disciplines. If you want, I can tell you. Q. Did many of the other students or

teachers of philosophy that you met and encountered during your study of philosophy, have such backgrounds in precise sciences?
A. None. None at all. Nobody.

Q. that is?
A.

Do you have any understanding as to why

Yes, I do. Because -- because

humanities, humanities are dead for the past 60

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145 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 A.
ILYA GELLER

T wanted -- I told you, Z saw that Google

is very ambitious company -- actually, I liked -- Z diked Google. I liked Google and I liked what they

did and how they did and I put to communicate to incorporate in Google somehow. I thought we would buy license, we will combine our efforts because I saw what Ser- -- Sergey Brin.went in my direction, went to personalization and went to all this stuff. I just saw that they are so bright, T knew Z couldn't

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conduct Yahoo because Yahoo is not a company with -Yahoo is not a company with -- is very -- could I say to you in Russian? (Speaks Russian.)
MR. BERELEKHIS: Yahoo is not a very

prospective company, promising. A. Promising.

Promising.

Promising company

and I decided to -- I tried to conduct Google. Right. I -- I thought Sergey -- I told you, I --

Sergey, he speaks Russian and at that time I afraid I couldn't speak English at all and even my memory was compromised -- was compromised and -- uh-huh.
MR. WHITE: Q. Objection, non-responsive.

Mr. Geller, you mentioned this morning

and just now a few times that in maybe the early

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146 1 2 3 4 5 now?
MR. CANNON: A. A lot. Objection, form, leading. ILYA GELLER

2000s you couldn't speak English? A. Yes. Was your English less good than it is

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Q A.

Why? MS, multiple sclerosis. It's one of -(Speaks Russian.)
MR. BERELEKHIS: Consequences.

Consequences of the multiple sclerosis.

It's one of the strongest -- people can speak -- with multiple sclerosis we can speak foreign languages and you see if I could, it means that -- if not multiple sclerosis, English would be --- my English would be perfect. Q· Was your English -- strike that. Did your English deterio -- deteriorate as a result of MS? MR. CANNON: A. Objection, .leading, form.

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(Speaks Russian.) A lot. MR. FENSTER: Let me ask the court

reporter to mark Exhibit 24, a document that has been

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ILYA GELLER

couldn't think about anything because you see before that I was in bad condition. It was awful. I -I -- I felt very bad. I could work only one or two

hours per day. And after I went to Russia, it was like I came from prison, from prison for life. You see, I just began to breathe. I began to think. I -- sorry, I just couldn't think about anything at

that time. Q. Let me ask you to take a look quickly at

the patent purchase agreement which was marked earlier as Exhibit 16. A. Q. Uh-huh. So in 2007, you sold your patent to PA

Advisors; is that right? A. Q.
A. Advisors. I

Yes, I did. And why did you do that?
First of all, I saw people from PA saw -- I met Dave. I met Eric. I saw

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what these are very competent people and they understand the stuff. And I knew with my patent will

be in good hands. It won't lie as a dead burden.

And secondly, I needed money to continue coming to Russia because at that time I didn't have any. I didn't have money.

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ILYA GELLER

Q.
A.

What did you need the money for?
For Russian, because the treatment in

Russia is astronomically expensive. It's . outrageously expensive. Right. It's so expensive.

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Q. treatment? A.

And you didn't have money to pay for the

No, not at all. I had only Social

Security and disability and my annual income from social security by disability is enough only for -for two -- my social security by disability for two years is enough to come to Russia once, so I didn't have any money. I didn't have any money. I couldn't get money from anywhere because I couldn't go even to work because, listen, I was -- I was a long time. So the patent was the only commodity what I could sell. Q. And what do you think would have happened

to you if you didn't get -THE VIDEOGRAPHER: change tape. I'm sorry, we need to

This will end videotape number three of

the deposition of Ilya Geller. We are going off the record at approximately 3:37 p.m., August 19, 2009. (A discussion is held off the record.) THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We are now on the

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record, beginning approximately 3:45 p.m., August 1.9,

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159 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Certified Shorthand Reporter Notary Public I, JOYCE SILVER, a Certified Shorthand COUNTY OF NEW YORK )
CERTTFICAT10N STATE OF NEW YORK

ss..

Reporter and Notary Public for the State of New York, do hereby certify the foregoing to be a true and accurate transcript of my original stenographic notes taken at the time and place hereinbefore set forth. I further certify that I am not related,

by blood or marriage, to any of the parties in this matter and that T am in no way interested in the outcome of this matter.

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