Ward found and ruled -

Based upon the record together with the arguments and statements made at the June 7, 2007 hearing, the court finds that the defendants willfully and intentionally violated the court’s amended discovery order, and that the defendants’ conduct constitutes discovery abuse. As sanction for the defendants’ conduct, the court

1. Limits the defendants’ time for voir dire to one-half of the amount of time that will be awarded to the plaintiff by the court;

2. Removes two juror strikes from the defendants, leaving them with a total of 2. The plaintiff will receive a total of 4 juror strikes;

3. Limits the defendants’ time for opening statements to one-half of the amount of time that will be awarded to the plaintiff by the court;

4. Limits the defendants’ time for closing statements to one-third of the amount of time that will be allotted to the plaintiff by the court;

5. Prohibits the defendants from proffering any expert testimony or opinion from any source during trial regarding non-infringement, save and except through cross-examination of the plaintiff’s expert witnesses;

6. Will instruct the jury that the court found that the defendants intentionally withheld documents from the plaintiff in willful violation of a specific court order to the contrary, and that the jury is entitled to consider this fact when determining the credibility of any witness called to testify in this matter; and

7. Awards attorneys fees and costs to the plaintiff that are attributable to the defendants discovery abuses in this case. In order to recovery such fees and costs, the plaintiff must, together with an application for such fees and costs, submit satisfactory proof that the fees and costs its seeks are attributable to the defendants’ discovery abuse.

The court has considered lesser sanctions, including monetary sanctions, but finds that such sanctions would be ineffective to cure the prejudice resulting from Toshiba’s conduct and deter such conduct in the future.

 

http://www.patenthawk.com/blog/2007/07/riding_herd.html#more

 

 

Be well