## Facts

- Verizon Directories Corp. and Yellow Book USA, Inc. were competing publishers of telephone directories and related advertising.
- Verizon brought a Lanham Act false-advertising action alleging Yellow Book made false or misleading comparative claims about the reach or effectiveness of its directories.
- The case proceeded in the Eastern District of New York before Judge Weinstein in a bench trial phase addressing liability and injunctive relief; damages were reserved for a later jury trial.
- During the bench trial, both parties relied heavily on computer-generated presentations to organize and display large amounts of proof, including highlighted document images, charts and graphs, subtitled deposition video clips, and annotated stills from commercials.
- The court reviewed the proposed digital demonstratives and struck some as erroneous, cumulative, or not useful, then addressed whether the remaining items would be treated only as illustrative aids or admitted into the evidentiary record.

## Issues

1. Whether computer-generated “pedagogical devices” used to present admitted testimony, documents, and data may be admitted into evidence in a bench trial.
2. What conditions and limits must be satisfied for admission, including accuracy, tethering to admissible proof, and balancing under Federal Rule of Evidence 403.
3. How the court should manage modern trial technology consistent with fair factfinding and effective presentation of voluminous material.

## Decision

- The court admitted most of the parties’ computer-generated pedagogical devices into evidence.
- The court excluded particular demonstratives that were inaccurate, misleading, cumulative, or not genuinely helpful.
- The court treated well-grounded digital demonstratives as permissible evidentiary tools, especially given the bench-trial setting.

## Legal Principles

- Demonstrative summaries and similar aids may be used to organize and assist evaluation of testimony or documents that are themselves admitted into evidence.
- Computer-generated demonstratives may be admitted as evidence when they accurately reflect underlying admissible proof and assist the factfinder in understanding complex or voluminous material.
- The proponent must show reliability and a clear connection to the underlying evidence; demonstratives cannot function as independent factual proof detached from the record.
- Admission remains subject to trial-court control over presentation and to exclusion where probative value is substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice, confusion, misleading effect, cumulative proof, or waste of time (Rule 403).
- The bench-trial context reduces concern that sophisticated visuals will improperly sway the factfinder, supporting broader discretion to admit helpful materials while screening for error and distortion.

## Conclusion

The court held that most computer-generated “pedagogical devices” could be admitted into evidence because they clarified voluminous proof and were adequately tied to admissible materials, while deficient demonstratives were excluded for inaccuracy or limited utility under ordinary evidentiary controls.


Verizon Directories Corp. v. Yellow Book USA, Inc., 331 F. Supp. 2d 136 (E.D.N.Y. 2004)