BCI Media Group Pty Ltd v Corelogic Australia Pty Ltd

BCI Media Group Pty Ltd sought an order for preliminary discovery against Corelogic Australia Pty Ltd and others under rules 7.22 and 7.23 of the Federal Court Rules 2011. BCI, which operates an information services business, sought discovery of documents relating to the alleged unauthorised use of its LeadManager digital platform. BCI claimed that Corelogic Australia and others had breached its intellectual property rights by using web crawlers to scrape information from LeadManager without authorisation. BCI sought documents relevant to the existence, scope and value of the alleged infringements. The court had to decide whether BCI had sufficient information to decide whether to commence proceedings and whether the categories of documents sought were too broad. The court also had to determine whether rule 7.23(2) of the Federal Court Rules 2011 allowed the court to order preliminary discovery of documents relevant only to the quantum of monetary remedies in the contemplated proceedings.

The court found that BCI did not have sufficient information in its possession to decide whether to commence proceedings against the prospective respondents. The categories of documents sought were not too broad, as they were limited to documents that were relevant to the existence, scope and value of the alleged infringements. The court also found that rule 7.23(2) of the Federal Court Rules 2011 allowed the court to order preliminary discovery of documents relevant only to the quantum of monetary remedies in the contemplated proceedings. The court noted that the availability of preliminary discovery was a useful tool to assist parties in deciding whether to commence proceedings and in assessing the merits of a case. The court made an order for preliminary discovery, specifying the time by which and manner in which the prospective respondents were to give discovery of the documents and produce the documents for inspection. The court also scheduled a further hearing in relation to remedy if the proposed orders were opposed.