One stockholder’s take…
In the ongoing legal maneuvering over the disclosure of documents relating to the Merchant & Gould “Opinion Letter” (of non-infringement), Judge William Duffey of the U.S. Circuit Court in northern Georgia issued the following order on 3/22:
ORDER DIRECTING that Echostar and Homer Knearl SHOW CAUSE by 3/30/07, why the following documents should not be produced: MG PRIV 16, 27, 32-35, 37, 55, 68, 69, 72, 73, 75, 85, 88, 95, 105, 177, 179, 180, 271, 274, 276, 287, 291, and 305. Echostar or Knearl must state in detail for each document the privilege asserted, and the grounds for that privilege, including a description of the identity and role of each author, recipient, cc recipient, or bcc recipient of the document. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that if any portion of the above documents was submitted to the Court in redacted form, unredacted copies be provided for in camera review by 3/30/07. These documents shall be marked in such a way as to allow the Court to discern easily which portions were previously redacted. Signed by Judge William S. Duffey Jr. on 3/22/07. (kt) (Entered: 03/22/2007)
The clarified rules of discovery issued by a U.S. Court of Appeals last year for this situation require documents to be produced to TiVo only if they were communicated by the law firm to the client (i.e., Echostar), or if they reference a communication with the client.
