Medtronic Sofamor Danek Inc. filed a patent suit against Gary Michelson, a spinal surgeon, over a spinal fusion device. Michelson, represented by Taylor Cates of Burch, Porter & Johnson, moved to force Medtronic to produce 996 computer backup tapes containing e-mails plus 300 gigabytes of additional electronic data.
Medtronic, represented by Leo Bearman and Bradley Trammell of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, complained that the request would be “astronomically costly” — production and privilege review of 124 sample tapes alone ranging as high as $70 million, depending on the contents.
