Discovery Into Commission History of Intellectual Ventures Licensing Executive Allowed​

The court granted defendants' motion to compel the production of documents regarding prior licensing commissions earned by plaintiff's 30(b)(6) witness on licensing because the evidence was relevant and not cumulative. "[The witness] is a licensing executive at [plaintiff] and [plaintiff's] designated corporate representative witness on licensing. . . . Defendants argue that [the witness's] financial stake in the case grows larger as the expert’s damages number increases. Accordingly, Defendants maintain that to effectively assess [the witness's] credibility, a jury needs access to the full details regarding how much [the witness's] compensation will be impacted by the contingent payment. . . .They further assert that [plaintiff's] damages expert relies heavily on [the 30(b)(6)] witness testimony, and thus these opinions hinge on [his] credibility. . . . Defendants have presented a reasonable explanation for why the documents sought are not cumulative: evidence of past commissions received by [the witness] goes to showing the extent of potential bias [he] may exhibit in this current case, based on how much he stands to gain relative to past commissions. In short, Defendants seek information to place [his] potential fee in the current case in context. The information currently in Defendants’ possession speaks to the fact of [the witness's] potential bias; the information they seek relates to the extent of this alleged bias."

Intellectual Ventures II LLC v. AT&T, Inc. et al, 1-13-cv-00116 (TXWD February 14, 2017, Order) (Lane, MJ)