Following the 2008 Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp. patent infringement dispute in which Qualcomm was fined $8.7 million for destruction of electronic evidence, large corporations like Microsoft, General Electric, and Exxon Mobile sought to implement a more permissive rule that limits a judge’s authority to penalize companies that fail to preserve electronic evidence.
The rule requires that the party that claims the other side destroyed or did not preserve evidence must prove that evidence was purposefully deleted to cover up illicit activity. Since the rule took effect in December 2015, federal judges have significantly decreased the rate at which they approve first and second category penalties for deletion or loss of electronic evidence.
