Salt Lake City ? In what’s apparently the first use of Utah’s new anti-spam law, lawyers are seeking damages from Sprint Communications Co. for an unsolicited advertisement e-mailed to a Utah man.

Sprint lawyers responded by asking Judge Denise Lindberg to force the plaintiff, Terry Gillman, to hand over his hard drive to Sprint while the case is pending. Sprint Communications is a subsidiary of Overland Park-based Sprint Corp.

The judge this week refused to order the hard drive to be turned over. She did say Sprint and Gillman are prohibited from erasing anything from their computers that could be relevant to the case, said attorney Denver Snuffer, who represents Gillman.

The suit is a class action, which means anyone in Utah who received the message could collect money if the action is successful.

A Sprint spokesman, Mark Bonavia, told the Salt Lake Tribune the company does not comment on pending litigation.