Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_16-cv-00951/USCOURTS-cand-3_16-cv-00951-5/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 820
Nature of Suit: Copyright
Cause of Action: 17:101 Copyright Infringement

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United States District Court

Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

ARISTA MUSIC, et al.,

Plaintiffs,

v.

RADIONOMY, INC., et al.,

Defendants.

Case No. 16-cv-00951-RS 

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ 

MOTION FOR MISCELLANEOUS 

RELIEF

Plaintiffs are various entities that own the copyrights to numerous audio and visual works. 

Plaintiffs contend defendants Radionomy, Inc., Radionomy S.A., and Radionomy Group B.V. 

have continuously violated copyright law by performing and displaying copyrighted works 

without permission at the behest of defendant Alexandre Saboundjian, the Radionomy entities’ 

CEO. Radionomy Group and Saboundjian are citizens of the Netherlands and Belgium,

respectively. Radionomy Group and Saboundjian previously moved to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims 

for lack of personal jurisdiction. That motion was denied without prejudice on June 8, 2016, and 

Plaintiffs were granted 45 days to conduct limited jurisdictional discovery to establish personal 

jurisdiction. 

On October 3, 2016, plaintiffs held a jurisdictional deposition of defendant Saboundjian. 

A jurisdictional deposition of Thierry Ascarez followed on October 5. Plaintiffs also scheduled 

jurisdictional depositions of Radionomy corporate representatives pursuant to Federal Rule of 

Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) for October 11 and 12, but those depositions never occurred. After the 

Ascarez deposition on October 5, a dispute arose between the parties as to whether defendants 

needed to assure plaintiffs that Saboundjian and Ascarez would be made available for subsequent 

merits depositions. Plaintiffs then postponed the scheduled Rule 30(b)(6) depositions out of fear 

Case 3:16-cv-00951-RS Document 60 Filed 10/27/16 Page 1 of 2
ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR MISCELLANEOUS RELIEF

CASE NO. 16-cv-00951-RS

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United States District Court

Northern District of California

that proceeding would cause defendants to resist future merits depositions of the corporate 

representatives.

On October 17, the parties submitted letter briefs stating their positions on the dispute. 

Plaintiffs seek an order ruling: (1) that depositions taken pursuant to the June 8 order will not 

foreclose subsequent merits depositions of any witness; (2) that Saboundjian and Ascarez must be 

made available for future merits depositions; and (3) that, prior to the Rule 30(b)(6) depositions, 

defendants must specifically identify and object to any topics they believe are not jurisdictional, 

and seek a ruling before the depositions occur. Defendants argue the matter is not ripe for review 

because they have not yet objected to any depositions.

Defendants are correct. Plaintiffs have not noticed any merits depositions yet, so this 

matter is not ripe for review. If plaintiffs notice merits depositions and defendants object, 

plaintiffs can move to compel the depositions. Plaintiffs’ motion is therefore denied, and the order 

of June 8 allowing for limited jurisdictional recover remains in full effect, except that plaintiffs 

shall have 14 days from the issuance of this order to complete jurisdictional discovery, since the 

original 45-day period expired during this dispute. The parties are expected to exercise the utmost 

good faith and cooperation in limiting the discovery to jurisdictional topics, to the extent possible. 

It may be, however, that some overlap between jurisdictional and merits issues is inevitable, and 

to the extent this occurs it shall not prejudice future discovery or serve as a basis to refuse 

answering questions in this phase.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: October 27, 2016

______________________________________

RICHARD SEEBORG

United States District Judge

Case 3:16-cv-00951-RS Document 60 Filed 10/27/16 Page 2 of 2