Party that Sought Metadata Only After Production of Document in .PDF and Paper Formats Not Entitled to Native Production
Autotech Techs. Ltd. P’ship v. Automationdirect.com, Inc., 248 F.R.D. 556 (N.D. Ill. 2008)
In this trademark infringement litigation, defendant sought to compel Autotech to produce an electronic copy of a word processing document entitled “EZTouch File Structure.” Autotech had already produced the document in both .PDF format on a compact disc and paper format, and had also provided a “Document Modification History” representing a chronological list of all changes made since the “EZTouch File Structure” document was created. Defendant argued that the production was not acceptable, because the document existed in its “native format” on a computer at Autotech’s offices in Bettendorf, Iowa. Defendant wanted the “metadata” — information it claimed was within the electronic version of the document including when the document was created, when it was modified, and when it was designated “confidential.”