Marriott Discovery Documents ‘Bloated With Breadcrumbs’: Defendant

The dispute over discovery materials between Marriott International and Whisl Telecom, one of the defendants in Marriott’s robocall trademark infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria, continues its escalating battle of words. A day after Marriott blasted Whisl’s “scattershot” motion to compel amid the more than 17,000 pages of documents Marriott said it has produced in discovery so far to Whisl’s 80 (see 2210270015), Whisl shot back in a reply (docket 1:21-cv-00610) to say that Marriott “admits it is withholding documents essential to this case -- documents about facts and circumstances that Marriott’s own disclosed witnesses will discuss at trial.” The documents that Marriott holds in its possession “are discoverable every day of the week, and no motion to compel should have been required to get them,” it said. The 17,000 pages Marriott has produced include “voluminous yet low-calorie documents, such as SEC filings Marriott’s damages expert may have glanced at to confirm that Marriott is in the hotel business,” said Whisl. “That Marriott’s crab cakes are bloated with breadcrumbs is not the issue; Marriott needs to produce the content that exists and is demonstrably relevant.” Marriott is suing to thwart robocallers from impersonating Marriott telemarketers.