Case: 1:23-cv-03147 Document #: 27 Filed: 03/22/24 Page 1 of 4 PageID #:70
`
`UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
` FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
`NORTHERN DIVISION
`
`CANDACE MORGAN,
`
`
`
`Plaintiff,
`
`v.
`
`GOOGLE LLC, JEAN DOES 1-2,
`
`Defendants.
`
`
`
`CIVIL ACTION NO. 1:23-cv-03147
`
`
`Hon. John R. Blakey
`
`
`NOTICE OF MOTION AND MOTION TO COMPEL INTERNAL DOCUMENTS FROM
`GOOGLE IN RESPONSE TO REQUESTS SERVED IN NOVEMBER 2023
`
`PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT on Wednesday March 27, 2023 at 11:00 a.m., Plaintiff
`
`Candace Morgan (“Ms. Morgan”) will appear before the Honorable John R. Blakey, in the
`
`United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 219 S. Dearborn Street,
`
`Chicago, IL, Room 1203, and present Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Internal Documents from
`
`Google in Response to Requests Served in November 2023, copies of which are hereby served
`
`upon you.
`
`In support of the Motion, Plaintiff states as follows:
`
`
`1.
`
`The Complaint alleges that starting in 2022 and continuing into early 2023,
`
`individuals that remain unidentified began a campaign of on-line harassment of the Plaintiff by
`
`leaving a series of negative reviews about businesses affiliated with the Plaintiff on a website
`
`controlled by Defendant Google, Google Maps.
`
`2.
`
`The Complaint further alleges that while the harassment started under a
`
`presumably fictitious username (“Mike Hunt”), Google allowed the harasser to change the
`
`1
`
`
`
`UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
` FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
`NORTHERN DIVISION
`
`CANDACE MORGAN,
`
`
`
`Plaintiff,
`
`v.
`
`GOOGLE LLC, JEAN DOES 1-2,
`
`Defendants.
`
`
`
`CIVIL ACTION NO. 1:23-cv-03147
`
`
`Hon. John R. Blakey
`
`
`NOTICE OF MOTION AND MOTION TO COMPEL INTERNAL DOCUMENTS FROM
`GOOGLE IN RESPONSE TO REQUESTS SERVED IN NOVEMBER 2023
`
`PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT on Wednesday March 27, 2023 at 11:00 a.m., Plaintiff
`
`Candace Morgan (“Ms. Morgan”) will appear before the Honorable John R. Blakey, in the
`
`United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 219 S. Dearborn Street,
`
`Chicago, IL, Room 1203, and present Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Internal Documents from
`
`Google in Response to Requests Served in November 2023, copies of which are hereby served
`
`upon you.
`
`In support of the Motion, Plaintiff states as follows:
`
`
`1.
`
`The Complaint alleges that starting in 2022 and continuing into early 2023,
`
`individuals that remain unidentified began a campaign of on-line harassment of the Plaintiff by
`
`leaving a series of negative reviews about businesses affiliated with the Plaintiff on a website
`
`controlled by Defendant Google, Google Maps.
`
`2.
`
`The Complaint further alleges that while the harassment started under a
`
`presumably fictitious username (“Mike Hunt”), Google allowed the harasser to change the
`
`1
`
`
`
`Case: 1:23-cv-03147 Document #: 27 Filed: 03/22/24 Page 2 of 4 PageID #:71
`
`username from Mike Hunt to Candace Morgan, such that the harasser was now impersonating
`
`Ms. Morgan, appearing to leave reviews in her name not only about the businesses with which
`
`she is affiliated, but also about other third-party businesses.
`
`3.
`
`The Complaint alleges that Google maintains an “anti-impersonation” policy
`
`under which Google represents that it will not permit impersonation of others on its website
`
`properties. Ms. Morgan reported the impersonation to Google, but Google declined to take
`
`action and continued to allow the impersonation of the Plaintiff.
`
`4.
`
`The Complaint further alleges that the harasser then further escalated the
`
`impersonation by obtaining a photo of Ms. Morgan and changing the image associated with the
`
`photo. Ms. Morgan took the image of herself and owns the copyright for the photo.
`
`5.
`
`Using Google’s copyright take-down procedure, Ms. Morgan requested that
`
`Google take down her copyrighted image. Google acknowledged it had received the request
`
`assigned the request case number 1-5722000033816:
`
`6.
`
`On April 23, 2023 removals@google.com, following up on Google case number
`
`1-5722000022816, indicating it would not “consider the request” including action to stop the
`
`infringement, unless Ms. Morgan provided a court order that mandates the removal of the
`
`“allegedly infringing content.”
`
`7.
`
`In response to Google’s refusal to stop the infringement of her copyright absent a
`
`court order, Ms. Morgan filed this action.
`
`8.
`
`9.
`
`Shortly after the action was filed, the user profile of the harasser disappeared.
`
`On November 24, 2023, Plaintiff served 7 requests for production of documents
`
`on Google. The first request asked for documents referring or relating to Ms. Morgan.
`
`2
`
`
`
`Case: 1:23-cv-03147 Document #: 27 Filed: 03/22/24 Page 3 of 4 PageID #:72
`
`10.
`
`On March 4, 2024, Google served objections and responses to the document
`
`request and produced documents limited entirely to printouts from various Google website.
`
`Among other objections, Google objected to the first request as overly broad.
`
`11.
`
`On March 6, 2024, the parties met and conferred about Google objections, and
`
`Plaintiff agreed to narrow the first request (documents referring or relating to Ms. Morgan) to:
`
`(a) documents from or to Ms. Morgan concerning her requests; and (b) any internal Google
`
`communications about those requests. There are shortcomings in other aspects of Google’s
`
`production but the production of these central documents is the most pressing.
`
`12.
`
`To date, Google has not produced a single non-public document relevant to Ms.
`
`Morgan’s complaints, has provided no date when it will do so, and has not explicitly agreed to
`
`produce any of Google’s internal communications about her requests.
`
`13.
`
`Fact discovery in this matter closes on April 26, and the deposition of the sole
`
`witness identified by Google in its initial disclosures and who Google also designated as its
`
`30(b)(6) witness is scheduled for April 10.
`
`14. WHEREFOR, Plaintiff seeks and order compelling Google to produce, no later
`
`than April 5, 2024: (a) documents from or to Ms. Morgan concerning her requests; and (b) any
`
`internal Google communications about those requests.
`
`
`March 22, 2024
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
` Respectfully submitted,
`By: /s/ David Berten
`David Berten
`Alison A. Richards
`Global IP Law Group, LLC
`55 W. Monroe St., Ste. 3400
`Chicago, Illinois 60603
`Phone: 312.241.1502
`dberten@giplg.com
`
`arichards@giplg.com
`
`Attorneys for Plaintiff, Candace Morgan
`
`3
`
`
`
`Case: 1:23-cv-03147 Document #: 27 Filed: 03/22/24 Page 4 of 4 PageID #:73
`
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
`
`I hereby certify that on March 22, 2024 I filed the above paper using the CM/ECF
`
`system, this document was served on all counsel who are deemed to have consented to electronic
`
`service. Fed. R. Civ. P. 5(b)(2)(E) and Local Rule 5.9.
`
`/s/ David Berten
`David Berten
`Attorney for Plaintiff
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`4
`
`
Accessing this document will incur an additional charge of $.
After purchase, you can access this document again without charge.
Accept $ Charge
Still Working On It
This document is taking longer than usual to download. This can happen if we need to contact the court directly to obtain the document and their servers are running slowly.
Give it another minute or two to complete, and then try the refresh button.
A few More Minutes ... Still Working
It can take up to 5 minutes for us to download a document if the court servers are running slowly.
Thank you for your continued patience.
This document could not be displayed.
We could not find this document within its docket. Please go back to the docket page and check the link. If that does not work, go back to the docket and refresh it to pull the newest information.
Your account does not support viewing this document.
You need a Paid Account to view this document. Click here to change your account type.
Your account does not support viewing this document.
Set your membership
status to view this document.
With a Docket Alarm membership, you'll
get a whole lot more, including:
- Up-to-date information for this case.
- Email alerts whenever there is an update.
- Full text search for other cases.
- Get email alerts whenever a new case matches your search.
One Moment Please
The filing “” is large (MB) and is being downloaded.
Please refresh this page in a few minutes to see if the filing has been downloaded. The filing will also be emailed to you when the download completes.
Your document is on its way!
If you do not receive the document in five minutes, contact support at support@docketalarm.com.
Sealed Document
We are unable to display this document, it may be under a court ordered seal.
If you have proper credentials to access the file, you may proceed directly to the court's system using your government issued username and password.
Access Government Site
