Go-Video, Inc. v. Motion Picture Ass'n of America

The district court held Go-Video in contempt for using discovery from its earlier lawsuit to support a later lawsuit, in violation of a protective order. We reverse.

I. Facts

Go-Video sued Matsushita and other defendants for antitrust violations in 1987. As is common now in business litigation, the parties signed a stipulation for a very broad protective order prohibiting use of disclosure of material obtained in discovery. The stipulation approved by order consists of ten single spaced pages plus signatures, and limits use of materials obtained in discovery to the action in which the order was issued.

During discovery, Go-Video obtained information which it claimed would show other antitrust violations in addition to those already alleged in its second amended complaint. After the court denied Go-Video leave to amend its complaint to include the new claims, Go-Video filed a second lawsuit in January of 1990.

Three acts were the basis for the contempt order. First, in the 1990 complaint, Go-Video averred that the defendants had entered into agreements “described more fully in the ‘statement of specific facts relied upon by Go-Video, Inc., in opposition to motions of defendants…