Skillz Platform Inc. v. AviaGames Inc. ( 2023 )

1 2 3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 SAN JOSE DIVISION 6 7 SKILLZ PLATFORM INC., Case No. 21-cv-02436-BLF 8 Plaintiff, ORDER RE: RENEWED 9 v. ADMINISTRATIVE MOTIONS TO FILE UNDER SEAL 10 AVIAGAMES INC., [Re: ECF Nos. 229, 244] 11 Defendant. 12 13 Before the Court are Defendant AviaGames Inc.’s renewed administrative motions to file 14 under seal certain exhibits attached to the parties’ briefs on summary judgment. ECF Nos. 229, 15 244. AviaGames requests that the Court allow the motion at ECF No. 244 to supersede the motion 16 at ECF No. 229. Because the documents that AviaGames seeks to seal in the motion at ECF No. 17 244 are inclusive of the documents in ECF No. 229, the Court GRANTS AviaGames’ request and 18 the motion at ECF No. 229 is TERMINATED. The Court has considered the motion at ECF No. 19 244, and its ruling is laid out below. 20 I. LEGAL STANDARD 21 “Historically, courts have recognized a ‘general right to inspect and copy public records 22 and documents, including judicial records and documents.’” Kamakana v. City and Cnty. of 23 Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 24 U.S. 589, 597 & n.7 (1978)). Consequently, access to motions and their attachments that are 25 “more than tangentially related to the merits of a case” may be sealed only upon a showing of 26 “compelling reasons” for sealing. Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 27 1101–02 (9th Cir. 2016). Filings that are only tangentially related to the merits may be sealed 1 In addition, in this district, all parties requesting sealing must comply with Civil Local 2 Rule 79-5. That rule requires, inter alia, the moving party to provide “the reasons for keeping a 3 document under seal, including an explanation of: (i) the legitimate private or public interests that 4 warrant sealing; (ii) the injury that will result if sealing is denied; and (iii) why a less restrictive 5 alternative to sealing is not sufficient.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(1). Further, Civil Local Rule 79-5 6 requires the moving party to provide “evidentiary support from declarations where necessary.” 7 Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(2). And the proposed order must be “narrowly tailored to seal only the sealable 8 material.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(3). 9 II. DISCUSSION 10 Because the renewed motion to seal at ECF No. 244 pertains to motions for summary 11 judgment, the Court will apply the “compelling reasons” standard. See Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 12 1177. 13 AviaGames seeks to seal several exhibits attached to the parties’ briefing on their motions 14 for summary judgment. Plaintiff Skillz Platform Inc. does not oppose the motion. AviaGames 15 provides that these documents should be sealed because they “contain nonpublic, confidential, and 16 propriety information concerning AviaGames’ internal software and trade secrets, and other 17 internal confidential information concerning AviaGames’ games, market analysis, and business 18 strategies.” ECF No. 244 at 1. AviaGames further provides that “[p]ublic disclosure of this 19 information would cause competitive harm to AviaGames by potentially giving bad actors a 20 roadmap to identifying sensitive information about AviaGames’ products, which could be used to 21 gain an unfair advantage against AviaGames.” Id. at 1–2. 22 Compelling reasons exist to seal trade secrets. Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179. 23 “Confidential source code clearly meets the definition of a trade secret,” and it thus meets the 24 compelling reasons standard. See Apple, Inc. v. Samsung Elecs. Co., Ltd., No. 11-CV-01846- 25 LHK, 2012 WL 6115623, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 10, 2012). And the “compelling reasons” 26 standard is met for confidential business information that would harm a party’s competitive 27 standing. See Jam Cellars, Inc. v. Wine Grp. LLC, No. 19-cv-01878-HSG, 2020 WL 5576346, at 1 proprietary information relating to the operations of both Plaintiff and Defendant”); Fed. Trade 2 Comm’n v. Qualcomm, Inc., No. 17-cv-00220-LHK, 2019 WL 95922, at *3 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 3, 3 2019) (finding compelling reasons for “information that, if published, may harm [a party’s] or 4 third parties’ competitive standing and divulges terms of confidential contracts, contract 5 negotiations, or trade secrets”); In re Elec. Arts, Inc., 298 F. App’x 568, 569 (9th Cir. 2008) 6 (finding sealable “business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing”). 7 Courts have also found compelling reasons to seal certain personnel information. See Pryor v. 8 City of Clearlake, No. C 11-0954 CW, 2012 WL 2711032, at *2 (N.D. Cal. July 6, 2012). 9 The Court previously denied without prejudice AviaGames’ motions to seal these exhibits 10 because AviaGames sought to seal the exhibits in their entirety. See ECF Nos. 201, 203, 206. The 11 Court finds that the proposed redactions in AviaGames’ renewed motion are “narrowly tailored to 12 seal only the sealable material.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(c)(3). 13 The Court rules as follows: 14 ECF No. Document Portions to Seal Ruling 15 161-2 Ex. A to AviaGames’ Highlighted GRANTED as containing (244-2) Summary Judgment Portions confidential source code and 16 (Dr. Welch Opening confidential business information Rpt.) the release of which would harm 17 a party’s competitive standing. 161-3 Ex. F to AviaGames’ Highlighted GRANTED as containing 18 (244-3) Summary Judgment Portions confidential source code and 19 (Dr. Zagal Opening confidential business information Rpt.) the release of which would harm 20 a party’s competitive standing. 161-4 Ex. H to AviaGames’ Highlighted GRANTED as containing 21 (244-4) Summary Judgment Portions confidential source code and (Welch Rebuttal Rpt.) confidential business information 22 the release of which would harm 23 a party’s competitive standing. 161-5 Ex. I to AviaGames’ Highlighted GRANTED as containing 24 (244-5) Summary Judgment Portions confidential source code and (Zagal. Dep. Tr.) confidential business information 25 the release of which would harm 26 a party’s competitive standing. 161-6 Ex. J to AviaGames’ Highlighted GRANTED as containing 27 (244-6) Summary Judgment (Z. Portions confidential source code and a party’s competitive standing. 1 161-7 Ex. O to AviaGames’ Highlighted GRANTED as containing 2 (244-7) Summary Judgment Portions confidential source code and (Rebuttal Rpt. Of J. confidential business information 3 Zagal) the release of which would harm a party’s competitive standing. 4 165-4 Ex. 8 to Skillz’s Highlighted GRANTED as containing (244-8) Motion for Summary Portions confidential source code and 5 Judgment (Welch Rpt.) confidential business information 6 the release of which would harm a party’s competitive standing. 7 165-5 Ex. 9 to Skillz’s Highlighted GRANTED as containing (244-9) Motion for Summary Portions confidential source code and 8 Judgment (Welch Dep. confidential business information Tr.) the release of which would harm 9 a party’s competitive standing. 10 172-4 Ex. 1 to Skillz’s Highlighted GRANTED as containing (244-10) Opposition to Portions confidential business information 11 AviaGames’ Summary the release of which would harm Judgment a party’s competitive standing. 12 (AVIA_0000303) 13 172-6 Ex. 3 to Skillz Highlighted GRANTED as containing (244-11) Opposition to Portions confidential business information 14 AviaGames’ Summary the release of which would harm Judgment (B. Liu Dep. a party’s competitive standing. 15 Tr.) 172-7 Ex. 4 to Skillz Highlighted GRANTED as containing 16 (244-12) Opposition to Portions confidential business information 17 AviaGames’ Summary the release of which would harm Judgment (P. Wang a party’s competitive standing. 18 Dep. Tr.) 172-8 Ex. 5 to Skillz Highlighted GRANTED as containing 19 (244-13) Opposition to Portions confidential source code, the 20 AviaGames’ Summary release of which would harm a Judgment (Welch Dep. party’s competitive standing. 21 Tr.) 185-5 Ex. S to AviaGames Highlighted GRANTED as containing 22 (244-14) Reply Portions confidential business information (AVIA_0017342) the release of which would harm 23 a party’s competitive standing. 24 185-6 Ex. T to AviaGames Highlighted GRANTED as containing (244-15) Reply (Chen Dep. Tr.) Portions confidential business information 25 the release of which would harm a party’s competitive standing. 26 185-8 Ex. V to AviaGames Highlighted GRANTED as containing (244-16) Reply (Skillz Rog. Portions confidential source code, the 27 Resp.) release of which would harm a Ill ORDER For the foregoing reasons, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that: 2 1. Defendant AviaGames Inc.’s Renewed Administrative Motion to File Under Seal 3 (ECF No, 229) is TERMINATED as superseded by the motion at ECF No. 244. 4 2. Defendant AviaGames Inc.’s Renewed Administrative Motion to File Under Seal 5 (ECF No. 244) is GRANTED. 6 7 Dated: September 18, 2023 9 BETH LABSON FREEMAN 10 United States District Judge 11 a 12 15 16 = 17 Z 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28