Electronic discovery has been called many names over the years. "Expensive," "burdensome" and "endless" are just a few of the adjectives that, rightly or wrongly, characterise this relatively new process. Yet a more fitting description may be that of a glass house since the rights and responsibilities of eDiscovery inure to all parties involved in litigation. Indeed, like those who live in glass houses, organisations must be prepared for eDiscovery stones that will undoubtedly be thrown their way during litigation. This potential reciprocity is especially looming for those parties who "cast the first stone" with accusations of spoliation and sanctions motions. If their own eDiscovery house is not in order, organizations may find their home loaded with the glass shards of increased litigation costs and negative publicity.

Such was the case in the blockbuster patent dispute involving technology titans Apple and Samsung Electronics. In Apple, the court first issued an adverse inference instruction against Samsung to address spoliation charges brought by Apple. In particular, the court faulted Samsung for failing to circulate a comprehensive litigation hold instruction when it first anticipated litigation. This eventually culminated in the loss of emails from several key Samsung custodians, inviting the court's adverse inference sanction.

However, while Apple was raising the specter of spoliation, it had failed to prepare its own eDiscovery glass house from the inevitable stones that Samsung would throw. Indeed, Samsung raised the very same issues that Apple had leveled against Samsung, i.e. that Apple had neglected to implement a timely and comprehensive litigation hold to prevent wholesale destruction of relevant email. Just like Samsung, Apple failed to distribute a hold instruction until several months after litigation was reasonably foreseeable:

As this Court has already determined, this litigation was reasonably foreseeable as of August 2010, and thus Apple's duty to preserve, like Samsung's, arose in August 2010. . . . Notwithstanding this duty, Apple did not issue any litigation hold notices until after filing its complaint in April 2011.

Moreover, Apple additionally failed to issue hold notices to several designers and inventors on the patents at issue until many months after the critical August date. These shortcomings, coupled with evidence suggesting that Apple employees were "encouraged to keep the size of their email accounts below certain limits," ultimately led the court to conclude that Apple destroyed documents after its preservation duty ripened. To address Apple's spoliation, the court issued an adverse inference identical to the instruction it levied on Samsung.