throbber

`
`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 828 Filed 01/03/23 Page 1 of 4
`
`
`
`J. DAVID HADDEN (CSB No. 176148)
`dhadden@fenwick.com
`SAINA S. SHAMILOV (CSB No. 215636)
`sshamilov@fenwick.com
`MELANIE L. MAYER (admitted pro hac vice)
`mmayer@fenwick.com
`TODD R. GREGORIAN (CSB No. 236096)
`tgregorian@fenwick.com
`RAVI R. RANGANATH (CSB No. 272981)
`rranganath@fenwick.com
`CHRISTOPHER S. LAVIN (CSB No. 301702)
`clavin@fenwick.com
`FENWICK & WEST LLP
`Silicon Valley Center
`801 California Street
`Mountain View, CA 94041
`Telephone:
`650.988.8500
`Facsimile:
`650.938.5200
`
`Counsel for AMAZON.COM, INC.,
`AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC., and
`TWITCH INTERACTIVE, INC.
`
`UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
`
`NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
`
`SAN JOSE DIVISION
`
`IN RE: PERSONAL WEB TECHNOLOGIES,
`LLC ET AL., PATENT LITIGATION
`
`AMAZON.COM, INC., and AMAZON WEB
`SERVICES, INC.,
`
`Case No.: 5:18-md-02834-BLF
`
`Case No.: 5:18-cv-00767-BLF
`
`Case No.: 5:18-cv-05619-BLF
`
`
`
`UPDATED STATUS REPORT OF
`AMAZON.COM, INC., AMAZON WEB
`SERVICES, INC., AND TWITCH
`INTERACTIVE, INC. FOR JANUARY 5,
`2023 HEARING
`
`
`JUDGE: Hon. Susan van Keulen
`
`Plaintiffs
`
`v.
`
`PERSONALWEB TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, and
`LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS, LLC,
`
`Defendants,
`
`PERSONALWEB TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, and
`LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS, LLC,
`
`Plaintiffs,
`
`v.
`
`
`TWITCH INTERACTIVE, INC.,
`
`
`Defendant.
`
`
`
`
`
`UPDATED STATUS REPORT
`
`
`
`CASE NOS. 5:18-md-02834-BLF,
`5:18-cv-00767-BLF, and
`5:18-cv-05619-BLF
`
`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
`
`26
`
`27
`
`28
`
`ATTORNEYS AT LAW
`
`FENWICK & WEST LLP
`
`
`
`
`

`

`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 828 Filed 01/03/23 Page 2 of 4
`
`
`
`1
`
`PersonalWeb: (1) After months of refusing to direct its lawyers at Stubbs Alderton to turn over
`
`2
`
`responsive documents, PersonalWeb only last week purportedly did so. (See Declaration of Todd
`
`3
`
`R. Gregorian (“Gregorian Decl.”), Ex. A at 3.) But PersonalWeb still refuses to take responsibility
`
`4
`
`5
`
`for the collection process, leaving it to Amazon to try to negotiate with Stubbs. (Exs. B-D.)1
`
`(2) Stubbs refuses to discuss what paper and electronic files it maintains for PersonalWeb; only
`
`6
`
`that its search is still ongoing and that it plans to complete production by January 20. (Ex. C at 3.)
`
`7
`
`For electronic documents, Stubbs still has apparently only run full keyword searches for
`
`8
`
`“PersonalWeb” and variants not including “Pweb.” Stubbs offered to consider additional electronic
`
`9
`
`search terms, but then it shut down discussion of Amazon’s proposals. (Ex. C at 9 “Priority
`
`10
`
`Categories”.) Now, on the eve of the hearing, PersonalWeb and Stubbs both report that Stubbs has
`
`11
`
`run a subset of Amazon’s proposed search terms against an undisclosed data set. (Id. at 3; Ex. A
`
`12
`
`at 1.) Amazon maintains that Stubbs must turn over the seven priority categories that Amazon
`
`13
`
`identified previously for the Stubbs collection. (See Dkt. 823 at 1 n.2.)
`
`14
`
`(3) Stubbs Alderton now admits to withholding documents that it claims “belong” to other firm
`
`15
`
`clients like the PersonalWeb insider-investors. Stubbs originally promised to provide information
`
`16
`
`about this issue before December 14th hearing, (see Ex. D at 1, 5), but now it refuses to identify on
`
`17
`
`behalf of which entities it is withholding documents, explain how it is making judgment calls about
`
`18
`
`which of its joint clients “own” each document, provide a log of the withheld documents, or even
`
`ATTORNEYS AT LAW
`
`FENWICK & WEST LLP
`
`19
`
`just disclose their number. (See Ex. C at 2-4.) At a recent conference of counsel, Mr. Sherman
`
`
`
`
`20
`
`became animated and shut down discussion of this issue. (Id. at 8.) He then went on vacation,
`
`21
`
`promising that Mr. Gersh would address open questions in his absence. (Id. at 5.) But Mr. Gersh
`
`22
`
`then claimed to have no information about this issue. (Id. at 2.) Given that the entities are closely-
`
`23
`
`related and share principals, and Stubbs Alderton apparently represented them jointly and also when
`
`24
`
`they were on opposite sides of certain transactions, this seems to be a shell game.
`
`25
`
`26
`
`27
`
`28
`
`
`1 For its own collection, PersonalWeb has represented that approximately 3,700 documents it had
`previously withheld based on the waived privilege claims (i.e., the “privilege screen” documents)
`remain to be reviewed, but that it intends to complete production by January 20. PersonalWeb has
`also received certain hard drives from Stubbs Alderton (Ex. J at 1) that it has reported that it does
`not plan to search because it believes them to be duplicative of its collection from Mr. Weiss.
`PersonalWeb has represented its forensic consultant would verify this belief, but has not provided
`any information about the consultant’s methods or results.
`
`UPDATED STATUS REPORT
`
`
`
`1
`
`CASE NOS. 5:18-md-02834-BLF,
`5:18-cv-00767-BLF, and
`5:18-cv-05619-BLF
`
`

`

`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 828 Filed 01/03/23 Page 3 of 4
`
`
`
`
`
`1 1
`
`(4) Stubbs Alderton has agreed to remove its arbitrary July 2021 date limit. It now plans to
`
`
`
`2 2
`
`search for documents only through September 15, 2022, because it claims that after that date it was
`
`
`
`3 3
`
`“prohibit[ed]” from communicating with its “former client.” (Id. at 2.) To the contrary, Stubbs
`
`
`
`4 4
`
`still represents PersonalWeb at the Federal Circuit, including filing a substantive letter brief for
`
`
`
`5 5
`
`PersonalWeb after its new proposed date cutoff. (Case No. 21-1858, Dkt. 71.)
`
`
`
`6 6
`
`(5) The PersonalWeb documents that Stubbs Alderton has already produced are fraught with
`
`
`
`7 7
`
`technical issues, such as missing page images, missing pages out of a multi-page document, missing
`
`
`
`8 8
`
`attachments to emails, and no load file or document metadata. Amazon raised these issues with
`
`
`
`9 9
`
`both PersonalWeb and Stubbs Alderton weeks ago, and neither party has addressed them.
`
`
`
`10 10
`
`PersonalWeb insider-investors (Claria/ECA/Brilliant Digital/Monto): (1) By comparing
`
`
`
`11 11
`
`productions across parties, Amazon determined that the PersonalWeb investors had failed to
`
`
`
`12 12
`
`produce certain documents. This led to a further discovery that they had failed to produce other
`
`
`
`13 13
`
`responsive documents as well, including incriminating emails showing that they had colluded with
`
`
`
`14 14
`
`PersonalWeb to modify the secured loan agreements shortly before they foreclosed. Specifically,
`
`
`
`15 15
`
`just days before the PersonalWeb investors filed the receivership action, they amended the
`
`ATTORNEYS AT LAW
`
`FENWICK & WEST LLP
`
`
`
`16 16
`
`agreements to identify PersonalWeb’s patent infringement suits as collateral for the loans. (Exs. E,
`
`
`
`17 17
`
`and F-H.) The PersonalWeb investors have thus far totally failed to explain why these documents
`
`
`
`18 18
`
`were not captured by their searches and produced previously. (Ex. I.)
`
`
`
`19 19
`
`(2) This failure makes it even more important that the Court order Claria and ECA to search
`
`
`
`
`
`20 20
`
`and produce all email accounts that Mr. Markiles used to conduct their business. As discussed
`
`
`
`21 21
`
`above, Stubbs Alderton has not searched for those documents, and is withholding any that it locates
`
`
`
`22 22
`
`in the PersonalWeb search based on criteria that it refused to disclose to Amazon. Amazon has
`
`
`
`23 23
`
`also searched the PersonalWeb productions made since the date of the last status update. Due to
`
`
`
`24 24
`
`the technical issues and lack of metadata, Amazon cannot be certain, but as best it can tell, Exhibits
`
`
`
`25 25
`
`3, 9, 22, and 25 to the Lavin Declaration (Dkt. 810-1) remain absent from the production.2
`
`
`
`26 26
`
`
`
`27 27
`
`
`
`28 28
`
`
`2 Claria and ECA’s remaining argument is their misdirection that this Court would lack jurisdiction
`to consider an alter ego claim in a complaint filed against them. (See Dkts. 801 & 825.) The Court
`clearly has jurisdiction to order discovery from a nonparty to aid in enforcement of a judgment. See
`Em Ltd. v. Rep. of Argentina, 695 F.3d 201, 209 (2d Cir. 2012), aff’d, Rep. of Argentina v. NML
`Capital, Ltd., 573 U.S. 134 (2014). And this Court has already held correctly that there is “a
`
`UPDATED STATUS REPORT
`
`
`
`2
`
`CASE NOS. 5:18-md-02834-BLF,
`5:18-cv-00767-BLF, and
`5:18-cv-05619-BLF
`
`

`

`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 828 Filed 01/03/23 Page 4 of 4
`
`
`
`Dated: January 3, 2023
`
`FENWICK & WEST LLP
`
`Respectfully submitted,
`
`By: /s/ Todd R. Gregorian
`
`TODD R. GREGORIAN (CSB No. 236096)
`
`Attorney for AMAZON.COM, INC.,
`AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC., and
`TWITCH INTERACTIVE, INC.
`
`
`presumption [] in favor of full discovery of any matters arguably related to [the creditor’s] efforts to
`trace [the debtor’s] assets and otherwise to enforce its judgment.” (Order at 2 (Dkt. 779) (internal
`quotations omitted).)
`
`UPDATED STATUS REPORT
`
`
`
`3
`
`CASE NOS. 5:18-md-02834-BLF,
`5:18-cv-00767-BLF, and
`5:18-cv-05619-BLF
`
`
`
`1 1
`
`
`
`2 2
`
`
`
`3 3
`
`
`
`4 4
`
`
`
`5 5
`
`
`
`6 6
`
`
`
`7 7
`
`
`
`8 8
`
`
`
`9 9
`
`
`
`10 10
`
`
`
`11 11
`
`
`
`12 12
`
`
`
`13 13
`
`
`
`14 14
`
`
`
`15 15
`
`
`
`16 16
`
`
`
`17 17
`
`
`
`18 18
`
`
`
`19 19
`
`
`
`20 20
`
`
`
`21 21
`
`
`
`22 22
`
`
`
`23 23
`
`
`
`24 24
`
`
`
`25 25
`
`
`
`26 26
`
`
`
`27 27
`
`
`
`28 28
`
`ATTORNEYS AT LAW
`
`FENWICK & WEST LLP
`
`
`
`

This document is available on Docket Alarm but you must sign up to view it.


Or .

Accessing this document will incur an additional charge of $.

After purchase, you can access this document again without charge.

Accept $ Charge
throbber

Still Working On It

This document is taking longer than usual to download. This can happen if we need to contact the court directly to obtain the document and their servers are running slowly.

Give it another minute or two to complete, and then try the refresh button.

throbber

A few More Minutes ... Still Working

It can take up to 5 minutes for us to download a document if the court servers are running slowly.

Thank you for your continued patience.

This document could not be displayed.

We could not find this document within its docket. Please go back to the docket page and check the link. If that does not work, go back to the docket and refresh it to pull the newest information.

Your account does not support viewing this document.

You need a Paid Account to view this document. Click here to change your account type.

Your account does not support viewing this document.

Set your membership status to view this document.

With a Docket Alarm membership, you'll get a whole lot more, including:

  • Up-to-date information for this case.
  • Email alerts whenever there is an update.
  • Full text search for other cases.
  • Get email alerts whenever a new case matches your search.

Become a Member

One Moment Please

The filing “” is large (MB) and is being downloaded.

Please refresh this page in a few minutes to see if the filing has been downloaded. The filing will also be emailed to you when the download completes.

Your document is on its way!

If you do not receive the document in five minutes, contact support at support@docketalarm.com.

Sealed Document

We are unable to display this document, it may be under a court ordered seal.

If you have proper credentials to access the file, you may proceed directly to the court's system using your government issued username and password.


Access Government Site

We are redirecting you
to a mobile optimized page.





Document Unreadable or Corrupt

Refresh this Document
Go to the Docket

We are unable to display this document.

Refresh this Document
Go to the Docket