Playboy Enterprises, Inc., Plaintiff, v. Terri Welles, et al, Defendants., 60 F. Supp. 2d 1050

Summary

Defendant individual and defendant company operated an internet website. Plaintiff corporation filed suit asserting the website infringed and diluted its trademarks. Plaintiff filed motion for discovery, desiring access to defendants' computer hard drive to recover deleted electronic mail, copies of defendants' income tax returns, explanations of defendants' denials of certain discovery requests, and answers to additional interrogatories. The court held defendants' hard drive was discoverable because it was likely relevant information was stored on it, and its production would not be unduly burdensome. Defendants' tax returns were discoverable because the information in such returns was related to plaintiff's damages under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.S. § 1117(a) and relevant to plaintiff's defense of defendants' counterclaims. The court declined to compel defendants to explain their denials of certain requests for admissions because such required defendants to make legal ...