18
Jan
By Eric Schweibenz
On January 18, 2011, ALJ Robert K. Rogers, Jr. issued Order No. 14:  Modifying The Procedural Schedule in Certain Flash Memory Chips and Products Containing The Same (Inv. No. 337-TA-735).

The Order resulted from a dispute between the parties regarding the deadlines in the procedural schedule for contention interrogatories.  The original procedural schedule set (1) February 17, 2011 as the deadline for parties to serve responses to contention interrogatories on the issues for which the party bears the burden of proof, and (2) March 21, 2011 as the deadline for parties to serve responses to contention interrogatories on the issues for which the opposing party bears the burden of proof.  Complainant Spansion LLC and the Commission Investigative Staff argued that the dates are deadlines to serve final contention interrogatory responses, and that the parties should be required to serve preliminary contention interrogatory responses prior to the deadlines.  Respondents argued that the dates serve as the first time that the parties must exchange contentions, and that there should be no requirement that the parties serve preliminary contentions.

According to the Order, ALJ Rogers noted that "[t]his is not the first time that this dispute has arisen...[and] [b]ecause of this confusion regarding the meaning of these contention interrogatory deadlines, I have now changed my practice when setting the procedural schedule."  Accordingly, ALJ Rogers determined to “remove the contention interrogatory deadlines from the procedural schedule in this investigation…[t]herefore, the standard 10-day rule for responding to interrogatories will apply, regardless of whether or not the interrogatory is a contention interrogatory.”