Vendor Seeks AT&T Emails for Trade Secrets Lawsuit vs. Ex-Broker

RediBag seeks an order compelling AT&T to produce emails relevant to a lawsuit it’s pursuing against a former sales broker for misappropriating RediBag’s trade secrets, said its motion Friday (docket 1:23-mc-00028) in U.S. District Court for Delaware. RediBag, which supplies plastic and paper bags to supermarkets, learned through discovery that the former broker, John Maierhoffer, communicated with RediBag’s competitors through his AT&T-owned BellSouth email address, said the motion. RediBag subpoenaed AT&T Dec. 9 for copies of Maierhoffer’s emails, including those he admitted to deleting, plus the metadata of those emails, it said: “RediBag wants to see the content of the emails and to determine when they were deleted (including whether they were deleted when Maierhoffer knew or should have known that litigation was underway or imminent).” RediBag’s motion alleges AT&T is dragging its feet on the subpoena, citing the referral of one AT&T representative to Yahoo as the company that’s in possession of the missing emails. An internet search reveals that Yahoo “is under contract with AT&T to provide certain services to AT&T customers with various types of email addresses,” including BellSouth email addresses, it said. “In an abundance of caution, RediBag also has subpoenaed Yahoo, which has not yet responded,” it said. “In other words, publicly available evidence suggests that AT&T has the practical ability to obtain the requested documents.” Several websites visited by RediBag attorneys as recently as Friday show “a relationship between Yahoo and AT&T that almost certainly provides AT&T with the practical ability to obtain the emails of users” with BellSouth email addresses, including Maierhoffer’s, it said. AT&T didn’t comment Monday.