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`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 828 Filed 01/03/23 Page 1 of 4
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`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.
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`UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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`NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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`SAN JOSE DIVISION
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`IN RE: PERSONAL WEB TECHNOLOGIES,
`LLC ET AL., PATENT LITIGATION
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`AMAZON.COM, INC., and AMAZON WEB
`SERVICES, INC.,
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`Case No.: 5:18-md-02834-BLF
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`Case No.: 5:18-cv-00767-BLF
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`Case No.: 5:18-cv-05619-BLF
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`UPDATED STATUS REPORT OF
`AMAZON.COM, INC., AMAZON WEB
`SERVICES, INC., AND TWITCH
`INTERACTIVE, INC. FOR JANUARY 5,
`2023 HEARING
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`JUDGE: Hon. Susan van Keulen
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`Plaintiffs
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`v.
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`PERSONALWEB TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, and
`LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS, LLC,
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`Defendants,
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`PERSONALWEB TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, and
`LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS, LLC,
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`Plaintiffs,
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`v.
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`TWITCH INTERACTIVE, INC.,
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`Defendant.
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`UPDATED STATUS REPORT
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`CASE NOS. 5:18-md-02834-BLF,
`5:18-cv-00767-BLF, and
`5:18-cv-05619-BLF
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`ATTORNEYS AT LAW
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`FENWICK & WEST LLP
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`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 828 Filed 01/03/23 Page 2 of 4
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`PersonalWeb: (1) After months of refusing to direct its lawyers at Stubbs Alderton to turn over
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`responsive documents, PersonalWeb only last week purportedly did so. (See Declaration of Todd
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`R. Gregorian (“Gregorian Decl.”), Ex. A at 3.) But PersonalWeb still refuses to take responsibility
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`for the collection process, leaving it to Amazon to try to negotiate with Stubbs. (Exs. B-D.)1
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`(2) Stubbs refuses to discuss what paper and electronic files it maintains for PersonalWeb; only
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`that its search is still ongoing and that it plans to complete production by January 20. (Ex. C at 3.)
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`For electronic documents, Stubbs still has apparently only run full keyword searches for
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`“PersonalWeb” and variants not including “Pweb.” Stubbs offered to consider additional electronic
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`search terms, but then it shut down discussion of Amazon’s proposals. (Ex. C at 9 “Priority
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`Categories”.) Now, on the eve of the hearing, PersonalWeb and Stubbs both report that Stubbs has
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`run a subset of Amazon’s proposed search terms against an undisclosed data set. (Id. at 3; Ex. A
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`at 1.) Amazon maintains that Stubbs must turn over the seven priority categories that Amazon
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`identified previously for the Stubbs collection. (See Dkt. 823 at 1 n.2.)
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`(3) Stubbs Alderton now admits to withholding documents that it claims “belong” to other firm
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`clients like the PersonalWeb insider-investors. Stubbs originally promised to provide information
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`about this issue before December 14th hearing, (see Ex. D at 1, 5), but now it refuses to identify on
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`behalf of which entities it is withholding documents, explain how it is making judgment calls about
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`which of its joint clients “own” each document, provide a log of the withheld documents, or even
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`ATTORNEYS AT LAW
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`FENWICK & WEST LLP
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`just disclose their number. (See Ex. C at 2-4.) At a recent conference of counsel, Mr. Sherman
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`became animated and shut down discussion of this issue. (Id. at 8.) He then went on vacation,
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`promising that Mr. Gersh would address open questions in his absence. (Id. at 5.) But Mr. Gersh
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`then claimed to have no information about this issue. (Id. at 2.) Given that the entities are closely-
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`related and share principals, and Stubbs Alderton apparently represented them jointly and also when
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`they were on opposite sides of certain transactions, this seems to be a shell game.
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`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.
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`UPDATED STATUS REPORT
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`CASE NOS. 5:18-md-02834-BLF,
`5:18-cv-00767-BLF, and
`5:18-cv-05619-BLF
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`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 828 Filed 01/03/23 Page 3 of 4
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`(4) Stubbs Alderton has agreed to remove its arbitrary July 2021 date limit. It now plans to
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`search for documents only through September 15, 2022, because it claims that after that date it was
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`“prohibit[ed]” from communicating with its “former client.” (Id. at 2.) To the contrary, Stubbs
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`still represents PersonalWeb at the Federal Circuit, including filing a substantive letter brief for
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`PersonalWeb after its new proposed date cutoff. (Case No. 21-1858, Dkt. 71.)
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`(5) The PersonalWeb documents that Stubbs Alderton has already produced are fraught with
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`technical issues, such as missing page images, missing pages out of a multi-page document, missing
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`attachments to emails, and no load file or document metadata. Amazon raised these issues with
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`both PersonalWeb and Stubbs Alderton weeks ago, and neither party has addressed them.
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`PersonalWeb insider-investors (Claria/ECA/Brilliant Digital/Monto): (1) By comparing
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`productions across parties, Amazon determined that the PersonalWeb investors had failed to
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`produce certain documents. This led to a further discovery that they had failed to produce other
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`responsive documents as well, including incriminating emails showing that they had colluded with
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`PersonalWeb to modify the secured loan agreements shortly before they foreclosed. Specifically,
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`just days before the PersonalWeb investors filed the receivership action, they amended the
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`ATTORNEYS AT LAW
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`FENWICK & WEST LLP
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`agreements to identify PersonalWeb’s patent infringement suits as collateral for the loans. (Exs. E,
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`and F-H.) The PersonalWeb investors have thus far totally failed to explain why these documents
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`were not captured by their searches and produced previously. (Ex. I.)
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`(2) This failure makes it even more important that the Court order Claria and ECA to search
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`and produce all email accounts that Mr. Markiles used to conduct their business. As discussed
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`above, Stubbs Alderton has not searched for those documents, and is withholding any that it locates
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`in the PersonalWeb search based on criteria that it refused to disclose to Amazon. Amazon has
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`also searched the PersonalWeb productions made since the date of the last status update. Due to
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`the technical issues and lack of metadata, Amazon cannot be certain, but as best it can tell, Exhibits
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`3, 9, 22, and 25 to the Lavin Declaration (Dkt. 810-1) remain absent from the production.2
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`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
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`UPDATED STATUS REPORT
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`CASE NOS. 5:18-md-02834-BLF,
`5:18-cv-00767-BLF, and
`5:18-cv-05619-BLF
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`Case 5:18-md-02834-BLF Document 828 Filed 01/03/23 Page 4 of 4
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`Dated: January 3, 2023
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`FENWICK & WEST LLP
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`Respectfully submitted,
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`By: /s/ Todd R. Gregorian
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`TODD R. GREGORIAN (CSB No. 236096)
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`Attorney for AMAZON.COM, INC.,
`AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC., and
`TWITCH INTERACTIVE, INC.
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`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).)
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`UPDATED STATUS REPORT
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`CASE NOS. 5:18-md-02834-BLF,
`5:18-cv-00767-BLF, and
`5:18-cv-05619-BLF
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`ATTORNEYS AT LAW
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`FENWICK & WEST LLP
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