We brought the news in early March that there was some movement in the court case between Diamond and numerous publishers. The various parties and Diamond met on February 26 and March 3-4 in an attempt to find a resolution, the nature of the claims and defenses, to arrange disclosures, and propose a discovery plan. On March 4, there was a filing hashing out the plan for discovery, the process where documents pertaining to the case are handed over.
Discovery is the process where documents related to the case are handed over to the parties involved for them to go through as far as evidence. This can be emails, text messages, Slack messages, and can easily go into the millions of documents.
The issue is who owns the consigned goods that are still being held by Diamond. Zenescope, Action Lab Entertainment, Ablaze, American Mythology, Battle Quest Comics, Paizo, Living the Line, Herman & Geer Communications, and Green Ronin Publishing are all fighting to get their inventory back. Diamond wants to keep the inventory to be able to sell it off to pay creditors. JPMorgan Chase Bank wants Diamond to sell off the inventory so it can get paid back by Diamond. Sparkle Pop is involved because it has sold off some of the inventory when it wasn’t supposed to and currently is holding the physical product in a warehouse it controls.
An updated timeline has been released as far as the discovery plan with some slight shifts from the previous released plan.
- Electronic Discovery. The parties have reviewed Rule 26(f), which, inter alia, addresses preservation of discoverable information, discovery of electronically stored information, and claims of privilege or work product protection. The parties have reviewed the Principles for the Discovery of Electronically Stored Information (“ESI”) in Civil Cases (as set forth by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland at https://www.mdd.uscourts.gov/sites/mdd/files/ESI-Principles.pdf), and will discuss the ESI Principles to agree on voluntary compliance, as appropriate. The Principal 2.03 Conference will occur on or before April 3, 2026. Documents and ESI shall be produced electronically via a mutually agreeable method such as an FTP site, and assearchable Static Images. This production protocol may be modified by mutual agreement or by court order.
- Rule 26 Disclosures. Unless otherwise agreed to by the parties, the parties shall make their initial disclosures pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1) on or before March 23, 2026.
- Discovery. The Parties have agreed that they may propound document requests, interrogatories, and requests for admissions pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Local Rules of this Court, which response shall be made within 30 days of service. Unless otherwise ordered by the Court or agreed to by parties, the limitations on discovery set forth in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure shall be strictly observed.
(a) Discovery Requests. The Parties shall serve all initial document requests, interrogatories, and requests for admissions on or before April 9, 2026.
(b) Agree on ESI Search Terms. The Parties will make reasonable efforts to agree on ESI Search Terms on or before April 23, 2026.
(c) Substantial Document Production Completion Date. The Parties expect to have document production substantially completed by June 4, 2026.
(d) Fact Discovery Cut Off. The Parties have agreed that, except for Rule 26(a)(1) disclosures, all fact discovery in this case shall be initiated so that it will be completed on or before July 31, 2026. The Parties have agreed that they may take fact depositions at any time prior to the expiration of the fact discovery deadline.
(e) Privilege Logs. Privilege logs shall be produced in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure so as to be completed within five (5) business days of the related document production. Privileged communications occurring after April 29, 2025, need not be included on a privilege log.
(f) Expert Initial Disclosures. The identify of expert witness and subject matter of expected testimony, per Rule 26(a)(2)(A) and 26(a)(2)(C)(i), shall be disclosed on August 7, 2026. Any rebuttal experts, and subject matter of expected testimony, shall be disclosed on August 17, 2026.
(g) Expert Reports and Expert Discovery Cut Off. Expert reports and all other information required by Rule 26(a)(2)(B), along with any documents or information considered by the expert, shall be exchanged on September 8, 2026. Rebuttal expert reports and all other information required by Rule 26(a)(2)(B), along with any documents or information considered by the expert, shall be exchanged on September 29, 2026. All expert discovery shall be completed by October 20, 2026.
- Protective Orders. The parties will submit a confidentiality order to the Court for approval on or before April 3, 2026.
- Case Dispositive Motions. Any dispositive motions must be filed on or before November 3, 2026. Answering briefs in opposition thereto are due seventeen (17) days later (November 20, 2026), with reply briefs to be filed twelve (12) days after the filing of any answering briefs (December 2, 2026).
- Joinder of Other Parties and Amendment of Pleadings. All motions to join other parties, and to amend or supplement the pleadings, shall be filed on or before June 19, 2026.
- Pretrial Order. If this adversary proceeding cannot be resolved on dispositive motions, the Parties have agreed to file a Joint Pretrial Report within thirty (30) days of the Court’s ruling on dispositive motions.
- Length of Trial. The Parties estimate that the time required to try this adversary proceeding will be 3-4 days.
- Other Matters. There are no other matters that need to be raised at this time.
Based on all of those dates, we likely won’t see a court case before 2027.
