Opinion ID: 669095
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Outstanding Discovery Requests

Text: 61 During discovery, UMC requested that AT & T disclose the identity of all cardholders located within a thirty mile radius of the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas. AT & T responded by listing the number of accounts opened per month in the designated areas and by objecting to the request for the identity of each cardholder. UMC then filed a motion to compel AT & T to provide complete responses and to impose sanctions against AT & T. The district court found UMC's motion moot when it granted AT & T's motion for summary judgment. 62 UMC contends that summary judgment is premature because the district court never ruled on UMC's motion to compel. According to UMC, obtaining the requested information will enable it to conduct a survey of the Kansas City and St. Louis AT & T Universal Card cardholders and thereby pursue further relevant evidence of actual consumer confusion which goes to the issue of likelihood of confusion. 63 The rule is clear: Although the Supreme Court has held that, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(f), summary judgment [should] be refused where the nonmoving party has not had the opportunity to discover information that is essential to his opposition, this protection arises only if the nonmoving party files an affidavit explaining why he or she cannot present facts to oppose the motion. Dreiling v. Peugeot Motors of Am., Inc., 850 F.2d 1373, 1376 (10th Cir.1988) (internal quotations and citations omitted); see also Pasternak v. Lear Petroleum Exploration, Inc., 790 F.2d 828, 832-33 (10th Cir.1986) (Where a party opposing summary judgment and seeking a continuance pending completion of discovery fails to take advantage of the shelter provided by Rule 56(f) by filing an affidavit, there is no abuse of discretion in granting summary judgment if it is otherwise appropriate.). Here, UMC failed to file a Rule 56(f) affidavit explaining why it could not present facts to oppose AT & T's motion. 64 Additionally, even if we assume that strict compliance with the rule is not required and acknowledge that the district court was apprised of UMC's alleged need for the requested discovery by virtue of UMC's outstanding motion to compel, UMC has failed to demonstrate how additional time will enable [it] to rebut [AT & T]'s allegations of no genuine issue of fact, Dreiling, 850 F.2d at 1377 (quoting Patty Precision v. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co., 742 F.2d 1260, 1264 (10th Cir.1984)), as is also required of a Rule 56(f) affidavit. Surveying AT & T cardholders in the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas is not likely to produce significant evidence of actual confusion because none of these cardholders have attempted to use their cards in UMC ATMs. The 400 AT & T cardholders who actually attempted to use their cards in UMC ATMs is the pool of cardholders most likely to show significant confusion, and a study of these cardholders has already been completed, showing that even those in this pool were not confused. Moreover, though UMC had the opportunity, it failed to conduct a thorough survey of the 400 AT & T cardholders. 5 UMC contends that it was precluded from completing an unbiased survey of the 400 AT & T cardholders because they had been tainted by Dr. DuPont's previous survey. Even so, Dr. DuPont's survey itself clearly demonstrates that only a de minimis 2.6% of the 400 cardholders appeared to make any association between the two marks, and we fail to see how surveying Kansas City and St. Louis cardholders who never attempted to use their AT & T Universal Cards in UMC ATMs can possibly produce more evidence of actual confusion than Dr. DuPont's thorough survey.