Conner v. Quora, Inc., a Delaware corporation ( 2020 )

1 2 3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 SAN JOSE DIVISION 6 7 JERI CONNOR, Case No. 18-cv-07597-BLF 8 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S 9 v. ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO FILE UNDER SEAL 10 QUORA, INC., [Re: ECF 141] 11 Defendant. 12 13 Before the Court is Defendant’s administrative motion to file under seal portions of its 14 motion for summary judgment and associated exhibits. Mot., ECF 141. Defendant filed its request 15 for two reasons: 1) portions of the motion for summary judgment and associated exhibits were 16 designated by Plaintiff as “Confidential” pursuant to the stipulated protective order (ECF 64), and 17 2) portions of the motion for summary judgment and associated exhibits contain commercially 18 sensitive documents and information regarding Defendant’s business. Mot 1-2. Plaintiff filed a declaration in support of Defendant’s motion to seal regarding the portions that contain 19 information designated as confidential pursuant to the protective order. See Decl. of Paul R. 20 Wood, ECF 144. For the reasons stated below, the Defendant’s motion is GRANTED. 21 22 I. LEGAL STANDARD 23 “Historically, courts have recognized a ‘general right to inspect and copy public records 24 and documents, including judicial records and documents.’” Kamakana v. City and Cnty. of 25 Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 26 U.S. 589, 597 & n.7 (1978)). Consequently, filings that are “more than tangentially related to the 27 1 for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1101-02 (9th Cir. 2016). Filings that are 2 only tangentially related to the merits may be sealed upon a lesser showing of “good cause.” Id. 3 at 1097. 4 Sealing motions filed in this district also must be “narrowly tailored to seek sealing only of 5 sealable material, and must conform with Civil L.R. 79-5(d).” Civil L.R. 79-5(b). Under Civil 6 Local Rule 79-6(d), the submitting party must attach a “proposed order that is narrowly tailored to 7 seal only the sealable material” which “lists in table format each document or portion thereof that 8 is sought to be sealed.” In addition, a party moving to seal a document in whole or in part must file 9 a declaration establishing that the identified material is “sealable.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(d)(1)(A). 10 “Reference to a stipulation or protective order that allows a party to designate certain documents 11 as confidential is not sufficient to establish that a document, or portions thereof, are sealable.” Id. 12 Where the moving party requests sealing of documents because they have been designated 13 confidential by another party or a non-party under a protective order, the burden of establishing 14 adequate reasons for sealing is placed on the designating party or non-party. Civ. L.R. 79-5(e). 15 The moving party must file a proof of service showing that the designating party or non-party has 16 been given notice of the motion to seal. Id. “Within 4 days of the filing of the Administrative 17 Motion to File Under Seal, the Designating Party must file a declaration . . . establishing that all of 18 the designated material is sealable.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(e)(1). “If the Designating Party does not file a 19 responsive declaration . . . and the Administrative Motion to File Under Seal is denied, the 20 Submitting Party may file the document in the public record no earlier than 4 days, and no later 21 than 10 days, after the motion is denied.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(e)(2). 22 23 II. DISCUSSION 24 Documents containing commercially sensitive information have been held sealable in this 25 Circuit. See, e.g., In re Elec. Arts, Inc., 298 F. App’x 568, 569 (9th Cir. 2008) (sealing exhibit 26 containing trade secrets and adopting definition of trade secret as “any formula, pattern, device or 27 compilation of information which is used in one’s business, and which gives him an opportunity to 1 Defendant’s sealing motion and the declaration of the designating party submitted in support 2 thereof. The Court finds that Defendant has articulated compelling reasons to seal certain portions 3 of the cited brief and exhibits. The proposed redactions are generally narrowly tailored. The 4 Court’s rulings on the sealing request is set forth in the table below. 5 6 ECF No. Document to be Sealed Result Reasoning GRANTED as to This document contains 7 141-3 Griffin Decl., Ex 1 entire document proprietary, non-public, and 8 competitively sensitive technical details. Decl. of Zhe Fu (“Fu 9 Decl.”) ¶¶ 5, 7. Griffin Decl., Ex 2 GRANTED as to This document contains 10 141-4 entire document proprietary, non-public, and competitively sensitive technical 11 details. Fu Decl. ¶¶ 5, 7. 12 GRANTED as to This document contains 141-5 Griffin Decl., Ex 3 entire document proprietary, non-public, and 13 competitively sensitive technical details. Fu Decl. ¶¶ 5, 7. 14 Griffin Decl., Ex 4 GRANTED as to This document contains 141-6 15 entire document proprietary, non-public, and competitively sensitive technical 16 details. Fu Decl. ¶¶ 5, 7. GRANTED as to This document contains 17 141-7 Griffin Decl., Ex 5 entire document proprietary, non-public, and competitively sensitive technical 18 details. Fu Decl. ¶¶ 5, 7. 19 Fu Decl. in support of GRANTED as to This document contains 141-8 Mot. for Summary entire document proprietary, non-public, and 20 Judgment, Ex 6 competitively sensitive technical details. Fu Decl. ¶¶ 6, 7. 21 GRANTED as to This document contains Plaintiff’s 141-9 Connor Dep., Ex. 7 entire document personally identifiable information. 22 Decl. of Paul R. Wood (“Wood 23 Decl.”) ¶ 5. GRANTED as to This document contains Plaintiff’s 24 141-10 Connor Dep., Ex. 8 entire document personally identifiable information. Wood Decl. ¶ 5. 25 GRANTED as to This document contains Plaintiff’s 141-11 Connor Dep., Ex. 9 26 entire document personally identifiable information. Wood Decl. ¶ 5. 27 GRANTED as to This document contains Plaintiff’s 141-12 Connor Dep., Ex. 11 GRANTED as to This document contains Plaintiff’s 1 141-13 Connor Dep., Ex. 16 entire document personally identifiable information. 2 Wood Decl. ¶ 5. Tr. excerpts of Connor GRANTED as to This document contains Plaintiff’s 142-1 3 Dep. the portions of the personally identifiable information. document Wood Decl. ¶ 5. 4 highlighted at: 16:1-7, 5 20:10-25, 6 33:23-34:23, 39:1-5, 7 46:7-25, 53:1-9, 8 53:19- 54:14, 56:14-23, 9 57:10- 15, 10 71 (all), 78:14-25, 11 79:1-10, 94:2-7, 12 95:7- 11, 97:18-25, 13 99 (all), 14 105:1-10, 108:5- 110:10, 15 121 (all), 172:10-13, 16 172:22-24, 17 203:5-12 Connor Dep., Ex 17 GRANTED as to This document contains Plaintiff’s 141-14 18 entire document personally identifiable information. Wood Decl. ¶ 5. 19 Griffin Decl. GRANTED as to This document contains 142-3 the portions of the proprietary, non-public, and 20 document competitively sensitive technical 21 highlighted at: details. Fu Decl. ¶¶ 5, 7. ¶¶ 4, 6-21 22 Fu Decl. in support of GRANTED as to This document contains 142-5 Mot. for Summary the portions of the proprietary, non-public, and 23 Judgment document competitively sensitive technical highlighted at: details. Fu Decl. ¶¶ 5, 7. 24 ¶¶ 3; 5-7; 9-10 25 Ferrante Decl. GRANTED as This document contains 142-7 Appendix B and to proprietary, non-public, and 26 the portions of the competitively sensitive technical document details. Fu Decl. ¶¶ 5, 7. Further, 27 highlighted at: this document contains Plaintiff’s jt Wood Decl 5 Mot. for Summary GRANTED as to | This document contains 2 142-9 Judgment the portions of the | proprietary, non-public, and document competitively sensitive technical 3 highlighted at: details. Fu Decl. §[{[ 5, 7. Further, 1:2-5; this document contains Plaintiff’s 4 2:11-14; personally identifiable information. 5 3:18; Wood Decl. 4 5. 3:24-4:24; 6 5:4-5, 9-11, 14-21, 23-27; 7 6:1-4, 7-17; 7:6-7, 19-23, 25, 8 27; 9 8:1, 4-9; 12:17-18; 10 12:27-13:6; 14:26-15:1; 11 15:3, 5; 21:11-12, 23-24 12 13 Il. ORDER 5 For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS Defendant’s administrative motion to file 6 portions of the motion for summary judgment and associated exhibits under seal. This order disposes of ECF 141. Z 18 IT IS SO ORDERED. 19 20 Dated: September 22, 2020 kom th oman) 22 BETH LABSON FREEMAN 73 United States District Judge 24 25 26 27 28