11
May
By Eric Schweibenz
On May 6, 2009, ALJ Robert K. Rogers, Jr. issued Order No. 33 in Certain Semiconductor Integrated Circuits and Products Containing Same (337-TA-665).  In the Order, ALJ Rogers denied Complainant Qimonda AG’s (“Qimonda”) motion to compel respondents LSI Corporation, Seagate Technology, Seagate Technology (US) Holdings Inc., Seagate Technology LLC, Seagate Memory Products (US) Corporation, and Seagate (US) LLC’s (collectively “Respondents”) to produce documents relating to importation.

In the Order, ALJ Rogers determined that Qimonda violated Ground Rules 3.2 and 3.5 (requiring parties to make good-faith efforts to resolve discovery disputes without ALJ intervention and to meet and confer to resolve discovery disputes at least two business days prior to filing a motion), as well as Ground Rule 4.1.1 (providing that no motion to compel discovery may be filed unless the subject matter has first been raised to the Discovery Committee and such Committee has reached an impasse) in connection with its motion.  By way of background, according to Ground Rule 4.1.1, the Discovery Committee consists of lead counsel for the private parties and the Commission Investigative Staff Attorney.

Specifically, ALJ Rogers determined that sending an email at 10:19 p.m. on April 21 regarding a motion to compel to be filed on April 23 “does not meet the two business day requirement of Ground Rule 3.2.”  ALJ Rogers further determined that raising the issue of importation during depositions “does not demonstrate that Qimonda made an intensive, good faith effort to resolve the dispute.”  Lastly, ALJ Rogers found that Qimonda violated Ground Rule 4.1.1 “because there is no evidence that an impasse was declared regarding [the importation] issue during a Discovery Committee meeting.”



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