April 10 (Reuters) - Texas and other states suing Google

over its digital ads practices should be barred from questioning

top executives including CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey

Brin, attorneys for the Alphabet unit told a U.S.

judge on Tuesday.

Google argued in a filing in Plano, Texas, federal court

that Pichai and Brin, now a member of the tech giant's board,

have no unique and relevant personal information to share in the

states' lawsuit accusing Google of illegally monopolizing

critical parts of the online advertising market.

Tuesday's filing also asked U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan

to block Texas from deposing YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, who was

questioned previously as part of an investigation by the state

and U.S. Justice Department, which sued Google in a related

lawsuit last year in Virginia federal court.

Companies often battle in court over demands to force

high-ranking executives to sit for hours fielding questions

about core business practices.

Plaintiffs can face a high bar to secure such depositions,

which are part of the pretrial fact-gathering stage of a court

case.

Google declined to comment, and attorneys for Texas did not

immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google has denied violating U.S. antitrust law and the

company's bid to dismiss the states' 2021 lawsuit is pending.

The plaintiffs in their request to depose Pichai and Brin

said they have information about Google's acquisition in 2008 of

DoubleClick, which the states have called "the leading provider

of the ad server tools" that media publishers and others use to

sell display advertising inventory.

Google countered that neither Brin nor Pichai were

"intimately involved in the DoubleClick acquisition or the

subsequent product development at issue in this case." Google

said many other witnesses have more knowledge about how Google

integrated DoubleClick.

YouTube's Mohan already has faced 14 hours of questioning,

Google told the court, and should not be subjected to the "undue

burden he would experience sitting for a deposition for a third

time."

Google faces a number of other government and private

antitrust lawsuits over various business practices, including

its app store Play.

Trial in the Texas lawsuit is set for next March, and Google

is preparing for a September trial in the Justice Department's

digital ads case in Virginia.

The case is State of Texas et al v. Google LLC, U.S.

District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No.

4:20-cv-00957-SDJ.

For plaintiffs: W. Mark Lanier of The Lanier Law Firm; and

Ashley Keller of Keller Postman

For defendant: R. Paul Yetter of Yetter Coleman; Eric Mahr

of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; and Daniel Bitton of Axinn

Veltrop & Harkrider

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