Firm News and Views

Internet Brands’s Chief Technology Officer Refuses To Answer Questions in XenForo Case

July 1, 2011

Los Angeles

On June 28, 2011, Internet Brands CTO Joe Rosenblum refused to answer questions under oath on advice of counsel in the lawsuit filed against former Jelsoft lead developer Kier Darby and XenForo Ltd.  Internet Brands’s counsel objected to allowing an audio feed of the deposition to Darby and XenForo’s corporate representative in the United Kingdom, even though the same procedure had been used the previous day for the deposition of Lynn Tokeshi, VP of Human Resources.  Both depositions were public proceedings governed by federal court rules.

This is the third time in two months that Rosenblum has failed to appear or refused to testify in the case.  In May 2011, Internet Brands abruptly abandoned a motion for a preliminary injunction, prior to any opposition being filed, the day before XenForo was scheduled to depose Rosenblum and then refused to permit the deposition to go forward.

“Internet Brands’s counsel is apparently very concerned about Mr. Rosenblum being questioned under oath,” stated Michael Grace, counsel for XenForo Ltd. and Darby.  “It is very unusual for a plaintiff to withdraw a motion for a preliminary injunction and also to withdraw a key witness at the eleventh hour.” 

Grace added, “Kier Darby and the XenForo team look forward to defeating Internet Brands in court at the earliest opportunity and have asked the court to set the trial in October 2011.  Internet Brands has refused to cooperate and is seeking to delay the trial for an additional nine months.”

The Tokeshi deposition, which Internet Brands’s counsel did not stop, revealed that Internet Brands has no evidence to support its false allegation that Kier Darby and Mike Sullivan had been asked to return Jelsoft company documents and had “refused” to do so.

XenForo Ltd. was founded in 2010 by former Jelsoft software developers in Reading, England.  XenForo recently launched a state-of-the-art forum software application that was developed from the ground up for superior performance, flexibility and user experience.  For more information on XenForo, please visit xenforo.com.