New Developments in Marvell Trade Secrets Voice Mail

Here’s how we wrote about it just over a year ago:

There are dumb mistakes, and then there are really dumb mistakes. Four years ago Matthew Gloss, the general counsel of Marvell Semiconductor Inc., and two of his colleagues phoned the legal chief of a rival company, Jasmine Networks Inc. The call went straight to voicemail, so Gloss left a message and hung up.At least, he thought he did. Though the Marvell officials didn't know it, the Jasmine lawyer's voicemail was still taping them as they continued to talk on speakerphone – allegedly about how they were stealing their rival's trade secrets.

After many twists and turns in Jasmine’s trade secrets lawsuit against Marvell, a California appellate court found the voice mail was not privileged.

Now, with the trial about to start, Marvell’s lawyers are seeking to impeach the famous voicemail as impermissibly edited.

As The Recorder puts it:

"Audio forensic expert Bruce Koenig found that 'there are a number of instances where there is a complete loss of signal which would be most consistent with editing the original source of the recordings,'" according to a motion in limine asking the court to once again exclude the evidence.

The Recorder thinks that the motion to exclude is a long shot, but we’ll see.