IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS TYLER DIVISION EOLAS TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Plaintiff, vs. ADOBE SYSTEMS, INC., ET AL., Defendants. Civil Action No. 6:09-cv-446-LED AND RELATED COUNTERCLAIMS DEFENDANTS ADOBE SYSTEMS, INC., AMAZON.COM, INC., APPLE INC., BLOCKBUSTER INC., EBAY INC., THE GO DADDY GROUP, INC., GOOGLE INC., NEW FRONTIER MEDIA, INC., PLAYBOY ENTERPRISES INTERNATIONAL, INC., SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC., YAHOO! INC., AND YOUTUBE, LLC’S OPPOSITION-IN-PART TO EOLAS’ MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE RESPONSE TO MOVING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO TRANSFER Moving Defendants1 are not opposed to Eolas taking, as it puts it, “limited” and “narrowly-tailored” discovery concerning factors relevant to transfer of venue on an expedited basis. See Mot. for Extension2 1 “Moving Defendants” are Adobe Systems, Inc., Amazon.Com, Inc., Apple Inc., Blockbuster Inc., eBay Inc., The Go Daddy Group, Inc., Google Inc., New Frontier Media, Inc., Playboy Enterprises International, Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Yahoo! Inc., and YouTube, LLC. (Sun Microsystems Inc. is now known as Oracle America Inc.) at 8. But there is no need for the preliminary issue of venue transfer to be transformed into burdensome and costly side litigation that ties up this proceeding for months. Moving Defendants are entitled to have their Motion to Transfer adjudicated promptly and Eolas is not entitled to embark on an open-ended fishing expedition on such issues. See Saleh v. Titan Corp., 361 F. Supp. 2d 1152, 1170-71 (S.D. Cal. 2005) (denying request for 2 Docket No. 241. Case 6:09-cv-00446-LED Document 248 Filed 04/05/10 Page 1 of 8 2 venue-related discovery) (“[N]one of the cases cited by plaintiffs suggest that a plaintiff faced with a motion for transfer may embark on a fishing expedition in an attempt to find witnesses in support of its case or suggest that it is appropriate to allow discovery on an issue as trivial as whether witnesses will be inconvenienced by having to travel from the east coast to California for litigation.”). Moving Defendants therefore propose that Eolas be given a firm deadline of May 21, 2010 to complete its transfer-related discovery and to file its response to the Motion to Transfer. A firm deadline of May 21, 2010 is more than reasonable, for the following reasons: 1. The Motion to Transfer has been pending since February 10, 2010.3 2. Eolas’s Motion for Extension states that it is already “prepared to respond to the substance” of the Motion to Transfer (Motion for Extension at 9), and the brief itself confirms that Eolas already has in its possession extensive information that it contends is pertinent to the venue issues (see id. at 3-8 & Exs. 1, 2). 3. Initial disclosures will be exchanged on April 14, 2010,4 4. The Moving Defendants are willing to provide on an expedited basis reasonable venue-related discovery that is, in fact, “limited” and “narrowly-tailored” to the issue of venue. Cf. Mot. for Extension at 8. and thus by mid-April Defendants will have provided Eolas with “the name, address, and telephone number of persons having knowledge of relevant facts, a brief statement of each identified person’s connection with the case, and a brief, fair summary of the substance of the information known by such person,” which will provide Eolas with the geographic location of the relevant party witnesses. 3 See Docket No. 214. 4 See Joint Agreed Discovery Order (Mar. 24, 2010) (Docket No. 245). Case 6:09-cv-00446-LED Document 248 Filed 04/05/10 Page 2 of 8 3 5. Eolas has retained the law firm of McKool Smith P.C. to represent it in this litigation and eight different attorneys from that firm have made appearances on Eolas’s behalf. Eolas thus has the resources to conduct any venue-related discovery on an expedited basis, without unnecessary delays. Accordingly, the Court should deny Eolas’s request for a three-month extension and, instead, should provide Eolas with a firm deadline of May 21, 2010 to complete its transfer- related discovery and to respond to the Motion to Transfer. Dated: April 5, 2010 /s/Richard A. Cederoth David T. Pritikin dpritikin@sidley.com Richard A. Cederoth rcederoth@sidley.com SIDLEY AUSTIN LLP One South Dearborn Chicago, Illinois 60603 Telephone: (312) 853-7000 Facsimile: (312) 853-7036 Theodore W. Chandler tchandler@sidley.com SIDLEY AUSTIN LLP 555 W. Fifth Street Los Angeles, California 90013 Telephone: (213) 896-6000 Facsimile: (213) 896-6600 Teague I. Donahey tdonahey@sidley.com SIDLEY AUSTIN LLP 555 California Street San Francisco, California 94104 Telephone: (415) 772-1200 Facsimile: (415) 772-7400 Case 6:09-cv-00446-LED Document 248 Filed 04/05/10 Page 3 of 8 4 Eric M. Albritton Texas State Bar No. 00790215 ema@emafirm.com ALBRITTON LAW FIRM P.O. Box 2649 Longview, Texas 75606 Telephone: (903) 757-8449 Facsimile: (903) 758-7397 Attorneys for Defendant APPLE INC. /s/David J. Healey David J. Healey Texas State Bar No. 09327980 Healey@fr.com FISH & RICHARDSON P.C. 1 Houston Center 1221 McKinney Street, Suite 2800 Houston, Texas 77010 Telephone: (713) 654-5300 Facsimile: (713) 652-0109 OF COUNSEL: Frank E. Scherkenbach Scherkenbach@fr.com FISH & RICHARDSON P.C. 225 Franklin Street Boston, Massachusetts 02110-2804 Telephone: (617) 542-5070 Facsimile: (617) 542-8906 Joseph P. Reid Reid@fr.com Jason W. Wolff Wolff@fr.com FISH & RICHARDSON P.C. 12390 EI Camino Real San Diego, California 92130 Telephone: (858) 678-5070 Facsimile: (858) 678-5099 Attorneys for Defendant ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. Case 6:09-cv-00446-LED Document 248 Filed 04/05/10 Page 4 of 8 5 /s/Douglas Lumish Douglas Lumish doug.lumish@weil.com Jared Bobrow jared.bobrow@weil.com Joseph H. Lee joseph.lee@weil.com WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES LLP 201 Redwood Shores Parkway Redwood Shores, California 94065 Telephone: (650) 802-3000 Facsimile: (650) 802-3100 Christian J. Hurt Texas State Bar No. 24059987 christian.hurt@weil.com WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES LLP 700 Louisiana, Suite 1600 Houston, Texas 77002 Telephone: (713) 546-5000 Facsimile: (713) 224-9511 Attorneys for Defendants AMAZON.COM, INC., EBAY INC., AND YAHOO! INC. /s/David Kent Wooten David Kent Wooten Texas State Bar No. 24033477 dwooten@velaw.com VINSON & ELKINS L.L.P. 1001 Fannin Street 2500 First City Tower Houston, Texas 77002 Telephone: (713) 758-2222 Facsimile: (713) 615-5216 Scott Wayne Breedlove Texas State Bar No. 00790361 sbreedlove@velaw.com VINSON & ELKINS L.L.P. 2001 Ross Avenue 3700 Trammell Crow Center Dallas, Texas 75201-2975 Telephone: (214) 220-7993 Facsimile: (214) 999-7993 Case 6:09-cv-00446-LED Document 248 Filed 04/05/10 Page 5 of 8 6 Attorneys for Defendant BLOCKBUSTER INC. /s/Neil J. McNabnay Thomas M. Melsheimer Texas State Bar No. 13922550 melsheimer@fr.com Neil J. McNabnay Texas State Bar No. 24002583 mcnabnay@fr.com J. Nicholas Bunch Texas State Bar No. 24050352 bunch@fr.com FISH & RICHARDSON P.C. 1717 Main Street, Suite 5000 Dallas, Texas 75201 Telephone: (214) 747-5070 Facsimile: (214) 747-2091 Attorneys for Defendant THE GO DADDY GROUP, INC. /s/Scott T. Weingaertner Michael E. Jones State Bar No. 10929400 mikejones@potterminton.com Allen F. Gardner State Bar No. 24043679 allengardner@potterminton.com POTTER MINTON A Professional Corporation 110 N. College, Suite 500 (75702) P.O. Box 359 Tyler, Texas 75710 Telephone: (903) 597-8311 Facsimile: (903) 593-0846 Scott T. Weingaertner sweingaertner@kslaw.com Robert F. Perry rperry@kslaw.com Christopher C. Carnaval ccarnaval@kslaw.com Mark H. Francis Case 6:09-cv-00446-LED Document 248 Filed 04/05/10 Page 6 of 8 7 mfrancis@kslaw.com KING & SPALDING LLP 1185 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036-4003 Telephone: (212) 556-2100 Facsimile: (212) 556-2222 Attorneys for Defendants GOOGLE INC. AND YOUTUBE, LLC /s/Michael Simons Michael Simons Texas State Bar No. 24008042 msimons@akingump.com AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD LLP 1111 Louisiana Street, 44th Floor Houston, Texas 77002 Telephone: (713) 220-5800 Facsimile: (713) 236-0822 Attorneys for Defendant NEW FRONTIER MEDIA, INC. /s/Avelyn M. Ross David B. Weaver Texas State Bar No. 00798576 Avelyn M. Ross dweaver@velaw.com Texas State Bar No. 24027871 aross@velaw.com Gentry C. McLean Texas State Bar No. 24046403 gmclean@velaw.com VINSON & ELKINS L.L.P. The Terrace 7 2801 Via Fortuna, Suite 100 Austin, Texas 78746-7568 Telephone: (512) 542-8400 Facsimile: (512) 236-3218 Attorneys for Defendant PLAYBOY ENTERPRISES INTERNATIONAL, Case 6:09-cv-00446-LED Document 248 Filed 04/05/10 Page 7 of 8 8 INC. /s/Eric H. Findlay Eric H. Findlay Texas State Bar No. 00789886 efindlay@findlaycraft.com FINDLAY CRAFT, LLP 6760 Old Jacksonville Highway, Suite 101 Tyler, TX 75703 Telephone: (903) 534-1100 Facsimile: (903) 534-1137 Mark D. Fowler mark.fowler@dlapiper.com William G. Goldman bill.goldman@dlapiper.com DLA PIPER US LLP 2000 University Avenue East Palo Alto, CA 94303-2215 Telephone: (650) 833-2000 Facsimile: (650) 833-2001 Kathryn B. Riley kathryn.riley@dlapiper.com DLA PIPER US LLP 401 B Street, Suite 1700 San Diego, CA 92101 Telephone: (619) 699-2700 Facsimile: (619) 764-6692 Attorneys for Defendant SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE The undersigned certifies that the foregoing document was filed electronically in compliance with Local Rule CV-5(a). As such, this motion was served on all counsel who are deemed to have consented to electronic service. Local Rule CV-5(a)(3)(A). Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 5(d) and Local Rule CV-5(d) and (e), all other counsel of record not deemed to have consented to electronic service were served with a true and correct copy of the foregoing by email, on this the 5th day of April, 2010. /s/Duy D. Nguyen Case 6:09-cv-00446-LED Document 248 Filed 04/05/10 Page 8 of 8
