Defendant Dynasty Marketing Group’s “repeated failure to respond fully and completely” to discovery requests and failure to appear at a deposition warrants “the entry of default on liability,” said Marriott International in a memorandum of support for its third motion to compel discovery Friday (docket 1:21-cv-00610). Marriott is suing Dynasty and other defendants, foreign and domestic, in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia to thwart robocallers from stealing Marriott trademarks by impersonating Marriott telemarketers (see 2210070013). Marriott has “suffered prejudice” as a result of Dynasty’s failure to adequately respond to discovery requests, answer questions on discovery topics and attend a “properly noticed” deposition, it said. Dynasty lawyers didn’t comment Monday.
A jury in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in Austin awarded $46.77 million in statutory damages Thursday to several record labels for the willful contributory infringement by internet service provider Grande Communications Networks of 1,403 copyrighted works, a verdict form shows (docket l:17-cv-00365). The labels sued Grande in April 2017, alleging its internet customers had engaged in more than 1 million infringements of copyrighted works over BitTorrent systems, including tens of thousands of “blatant infringements by repeat infringers.” The lawsuit alleged Grande turned a blind eye to the wrongdoing, refusing to take “any meaningful action to discourage this continuing theft, let alone suspend or terminate subscribers who repeatedly commit copyright infringement through its network.” Grande didn’t respond Friday to requests for comment.
Defendant ResortCom International denies Marriott International’s allegations it violated the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule “in any way,” said its answer Thursday (docket 1:21-cv-00610) to Marriott’s amended complaint. Marriott’s trademark infringement lawsuit alleges multiple defendant robocallers impersonated Marriott telemarketers. ResortCom’s answer was due Oct. 5 but filed late due to “miscommunication” among the defendant’s lawyers who cited "excusable neglect" as the reason. ResortCom denies it's a telemarketer and denies it has “participated in or assisted in” any telemarketing activities or robocalls, said its answer. “Marriott lacks standing to assert its TSR claim against ResortCom because no actions or inactions by ResortCom caused Marriott to suffer more than $50,000 in damages,” it said. It asked the court to dismiss the claim with prejudice and award ResortCom recovery of its attorney’s fees and court costs.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika for Delaware agreed to the joint stipulation of Averon and AT&T to extend to Jan. 9 the deadline for AT&T to respond to Averon’s complaint (see 2211020001), said a text order Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-01341). Digital identity verification platform Averon alleges AT&T misappropriated its trade secrets. AT&T denies the allegations and says Averon mounted the lawsuit as a publicity stunt.
Marriott International reached a settlement agreement with defendant Whisl Telecom in Marriott’s trademark infringement lawsuit to thwart robocallers from impersonating Marriott telemarketers, according to a stipulation (docket 1:21-cv-00610) signed Tuesday by Senior U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria. Trenga canceled a hearing planned for Friday to address Marriott-Whisl discovery disputes. Only days before the settlement, Marriott and Whisl were at an impasse over discovery that sparked an escalating war of words (see 2210280020). Settlement terms weren't disclosed.
AT&T and digital identity verification platform Averon agreed to extend to Jan. 5 the deadline for AT&T to respond to Averon’s complaint alleging that AT&T misappropriated its trade secrets (see 2210120040), said a stipulation (docket 1:22-cv-01341) submitted by lawyers for both sides Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Delaware. AT&T has blasted Averon’s lawsuit as a publicity stunt (see 2210130012).
Spanish-language movie producer Carlos Vasallo turned down use of YouTube's copyright management tools but is now trying to force the service to provide a nonexistent version of Content ID tailored to his preferences, defendants Google and YouTube told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Monday in an answer to an amended copyright infringement complaint by Vasallo's Athos Overseas. The defendants in docket 1:21-cv-21698 said Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbors protect them from infringement claims. They said by not requesting the removal from YouTube of allegedly infringing content, Vasallo and Athos failed to mitigate damages. Counsel for the plaintiffs didn't comment Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Anderson for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria signed an order Friday (docket 1:21-cv-00610) granting Marriott International’s motion to compel discovery from Dynasty Marketing Group, a defendant in its trademark infringement lawsuit that seeks to thwart robocallers from impersonating Marriott telemarketers (see 2210240001). Anderson’s order directed Dynasty to provide “full and complete responses” to Marriott’s discovery requests by Friday at noon, and said its failure to do so would risk a default judgment “on the issue of liability.” Anderson, in a separate order Friday, denied Marriott’s motion to compel discovery from another defendant, Whisl Telecom, and granted in part and denied in part Whisl’s motion to compel discovery from Marriott. The discovery disputes between Marriott and Whisl have evolved into an escalating battle of words (see 2210280020). Anderson scheduled a status conference for Friday to resolve any remaining disputes.
The dispute over discovery materials between Marriott International and Whisl Telecom, one of the defendants in Marriott’s robocall trademark infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria, continues its escalating battle of words. A day after Marriott blasted Whisl’s “scattershot” motion to compel amid the more than 17,000 pages of documents Marriott said it has produced in discovery so far to Whisl’s 80 (see 2210270015), Whisl shot back in a reply (docket 1:21-cv-00610) to say that Marriott “admits it is withholding documents essential to this case -- documents about facts and circumstances that Marriott’s own disclosed witnesses will discuss at trial.” The documents that Marriott holds in its possession “are discoverable every day of the week, and no motion to compel should have been required to get them,” it said. The 17,000 pages Marriott has produced include “voluminous yet low-calorie documents, such as SEC filings Marriott’s damages expert may have glanced at to confirm that Marriott is in the hotel business,” said Whisl. “That Marriott’s crab cakes are bloated with breadcrumbs is not the issue; Marriott needs to produce the content that exists and is demonstrably relevant.” Marriott is suing to thwart robocallers from impersonating Marriott telemarketers.
Amazon Prime Video, plus “various generations and screen sizes” of Amazon Fire and Echo Show devices, continue to infringe five DivX patents on adaptive bitrate streaming and digital rights management, alleged Divx in a complaint Monday (docket 3:22-cv-00687) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria. “Without discovery, DivX cannot exhaustively identify all Amazon devices” that infringe the asserted patents, it said. Amazon provides an app store and associated infrastructure “to enable streaming service providers to provide their Amazon device-specific streaming applications to end users, so that such end users can download, install, and use such streaming applications” using the Amazon accused products, it said. Amazon didn’t comment.