In Belvac Prod. Mach., Inc. v. Adonis Acquisition Holdings LLC, 2025 WL 2146099 (D. Del. July 29, 2025), Magistrate Judge Sherry R. Fallon addressed a dispute over the scope of ESI preservation in a copyright case involving alleged unauthorized reproduction of Belvac’s embedded PLC software. The parties’ principal dispute concerned Belvac’s request for an expanded ESI-preservation protocol requiring Adonis to preserve RAM, temporary files, forensic-level deleted or fragmented data, and system logs that might evidence reproduction of Belvac’s embedded software. Adonis opposed the request, arguing Belvac had not demonstrated the “good cause” required to deviate from the District of Delaware’s Default ESI Standard.

The court denied Belvac’s motion without prejudice, finding that the proposed protocol used undefined and vague concepts such as “real-time retention” and “known-to-Adonis scenarios” and was overly broad. Judge Fallon also noted that Adonis had proposed a narrower alternative focused only on preserving RAM data, temporary files, and logs generated during specific system events, yet the parties had not adequately met and conferred about this compromise or investigated the feasibility and costs associated with either approach.

The court also identified broader discovery-management issues. It noted that the parties had not meaningfully met and conferred, and ordered they do so by August 8, 2025 to negotiate a more targeted protocol and to develop concrete information regarding anticipated preservation costs. The ruling underscores that heightened ESI preservation obligations—especially involving transient or forensic-only data—require precise definitions, technical justification, and genuine collaboration before seeking judicial intervention.

Reach out to Caitlin Oyler, Counsel at CODISCOVR. Caitlin has over a decade of experience providing high-level advice to clients regarding all phases of the eDiscovery life cycle and managing high-profile document collections, reviews, and productions.