After a flurry of year-end filings, Judge Denise Cote late last week rejected Apple’s bid to extend its deposition of plaintiff expert witness Roger Noll, a Stanford economist whose report had pegged Apple’s total e-book damages at just over $307 million.
In her brief written order, Cote said that Apple may file a sur-reply with the court to detail its objections to Noll’s findings, but the court denied Apple an extension of its allotted six-hours of deposition time with Noll.
In a December 23 letter, Apple had pressed for additional deposition time to address what Apple attorneys termed Noll’s “subsequently-disclosed rebuttal opinions.” In a Christmas Eve reply, class action attorney Steve Berman called Apple’s contention that Noll “changed his methodologies to account for deficiencies in his original work,” a “remarkably inaccurate” characterization.
A damages trial remains on track for a May, 2014, trial, although it is possible that the proceedings could be stayed pending the disposition of Apple's appeal.
