Destruction of Documents Pursuant to Document Retention Policy Results in Dispositive Sanctions Where Policy was Created as Part of Litigation Strategy and Thus Litigation was Reasonably Foreseeable
Micron Tech., Inc. v. Rambus, Inc., 255 F.R.D. 135 (D. Del. 2009)
In this case arising from Micron’s alleged infringement of Rambus’ patents, a bench trial was held on the issue of Rambus’ alleged spoliation of relevant documents pursuant to a document retention policy it had recently implemented. The court ruled that Rambus had intentionally spoliated documents in bad faith. As a sanction, the court declared the patents in suit unenforceable against Micron.