The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation
- Sidney Stein
- 1:23-cv-11195
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
The New York Times v. Microsoft: Judge Stein denied non-party John P. Springett II’s request to file an outside-party brief about a preservation order.
Non-party John P. Springett II, whose request to file an amicus brief concerning a preservation order was denied.
What happened
In The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation, non-party John P. Springett II asked to file a brief about Magistrate Judge Ona Wang’s May 13, 2025 preservation order.
Springett said the brief would support neither side. The court explained that such briefs are generally allowed when a party lacks competent representation, the filer has an interest in another affected case, or the filer can offer information or a perspective beyond what the parties’ lawyers can provide.
The court found that none of those circumstances was present and denied the request. Judge Sidney H. Stein issued the order on August 7, 2025.
The detailed version
- The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation · No. 1:23-cv-11195
- Sidney Stein
- Aug. 7, 2025
Background
The order appears in the court’s captioned matter, In re: OpenAI, Inc., Copyright Infringement Litigation, and states that it relates to case number 23-cv-11195. The court received by mail a request from non-party John P. Springett II for permission to file an amicus curiae brief—a brief submitted by someone who is not a party to the case. The proposed brief concerned Magistrate Judge Ona Wang’s May 13, 2025 preservation order.
Legal standard
The court stated that permission to file an amicus brief should generally be granted when a party is not represented competently or at all, when the proposed amicus has an interest in another case that could be affected by the present case, or when the proposed amicus can provide unique information or a perspective beyond what the parties’ lawyers can provide. Otherwise, the court stated, permission should be denied.
Ruling
The court concluded that none of the circumstances supporting permission to file an amicus brief was present. It therefore denied John P. Springett II’s request for leave to file the brief. The order was signed by Sidney H. Stein, U.S. District Judge, and dated August 7, 2025.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.