Minemyer v. R-Boc Reps., Inc., No. 07 C 1763, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Feb. 15, 2012) (Cole, Mag. J.).

Magistrate Judge Cole admitted a third party Power Point presentation in this patent litigation.  The Court originally granted defendant’s motion in limine excluding the presentation, although allowing plaintiff’s expert to rely upon the document because of defendant’s failure to timely challenge the expert report.  Without ruling upon the credibility of testimony or making a factual finding, the Court ruled upon the admissibility of the Power Point presentation as follows:

  • Evidence was introduced that could lead a jury to believe statements in the Power Point presentation were false or misleading.
  • Plaintiffs would argue that evidence at trial showed that defendants intended to copy plaintiff’s coupler and sell it to Verizon.
  • Emails were introduced into evidence suggesting that Verizon may have understood that defendants were offering to use plaintiff’s coupler’s in defendant’s proposal.

Based upon at least these reasons, the Power Point presentation was admitted although not for the truth of the matter asserted:

The Power Point will still not be admitted for the truth of the matter asserted, namely that Dura-Line bid Lozon products or that it was an advantage of the Dura-Line bid that it had bid the Lozon coupler.  Rather, those statements will be received simply to show that they were made and if the jury thought it proper, they could conclude that it was Verizon’s perception that the Lozon couplers had been bid by Dura-Line and that Verizon perceived them as an acceptable and quality product.