Fourteen Attorneys to Appear and Show Cause Why Sanctions Should Not Be Imposed for “Organized Program of Litigation Misconduct and Concealment”

Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp., No. 05-CV-1958-B(BLM) (S.D. Cal. Aug. 13, 2007) (Order to Show Cause Why Sanctions Should Not Be Imposed)

Today, Magistrate Judge Barbara Lynn Major, United States District Court for the Southern District of California, signed and entered an Order to Show Cause directing 14 attorneys, “and any and all other attorneys who signed discovery responses, signed pleadings and pre-trial motions, and/or appeared at trial on behalf of Qualcomm,” to appear in her courtroom on August 29, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed against them for failure to comply with the Court’s orders.  The Order provides that the attorneys may also file declarations regarding the imposition of sanctions on or before August 22, 2007.

The Order to Show Cause comes on the heels of the 54-page Order on Remedy for Finding of Waiver, entered August 6, 2007, by District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster.  There, the District Judge found “by clear and convincing evidence that Qualcomm[’s] counsel participated in an organized program of litigation misconduct and concealment throughout discovery, trial, and post-trial before new counsel took over lead role in the case on April 27, 2007.”  Among other things, the Court highlighted Qualcomm’s production of over 200,000 pages of highly relevant emails and electronic documents four months post-trial.

A copy of today’s Order to Show Cause is available here.

A copy of Judge Rudi M. Brewster’s August 6, 2007 Order on Remedy for Finding of Waiver is available here.

A copy of Judge Rudi M. Brewster’s August 6, 2007 Order Granting Broadcom Corporation’s Motion for Exceptional Case Finding and for an Award of Attorneys’ Fees (35 U.S.C. § 285) is available here.