- 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 QUORA'S 9 v. MOTION TO FILE DOCUMENTS UNDER SEAL 10 QUORA, INC., [Re: ECF 190] 11 Defendant. 12 13 Before the Court is Defendant Quora’s motion to file under seal certain portions of a 14 transcript submitted in support of its opposition to Plaintiff’s motion for relief from nondispositive 15 pretrial order of the magistrate judge, see ECF 189, and a privilege log. See Mot., ECF 190. 16 Plaintiff Jeri Connor did not file an opposition. For the reasons stated below, Defendant’s motion 17 is GRANTED. 18 I. LEGAL STANDARD 19 “Historically, courts have recognized a ‘general right to inspect and copy public records 20 and documents, including judicial records and documents.’” Kamakana v. City and County of 21 Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 22 U.S. 589, 597 n.7 (1978)). Consequently, filings that are “more than tangentially related to the 23 merits of a case” may be sealed only upon a showing of “compelling reasons” for sealing. Ctr. for 24 Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1101-02 (9th Cir. 2016). Filings that are only 25 tangentially related to the merits may be sealed upon a lesser showing of “good cause.” Id. at 26 1097. 27 Sealing motions filed in this district also must be “narrowly tailored to seek sealing only of 1 Local Rule 79-6(d), the submitting party must attach a “proposed order that is narrowly tailored to 2 seal only the sealable material” which “lists in table format each document or portion thereof that 3 is sought to be sealed.” In addition, a party moving to seal a document in whole or in part must file 4 a declaration establishing that the identified material is “sealable.” Civ. L.R. 79-5(d)(1)(A). 5 “Reference to a stipulation or protective order that allows a party to designate certain documents 6 as confidential is not sufficient to establish that a document, or portions thereof, are sealable.” Id. 7 II. DISCUSSION 8 Documents containing commercially sensitive information have been held sealable in this 9 Circuit. See, e.g., In re Elec. Arts, Inc., 298 F. App’x 568, 569 (9th Cir. 2008) (sealing exhibit 10 containing trade secrets and adopting definition of trade secret as “any formula, pattern, device or 11 compilation of information which is used in one’s business, and which gives him an opportunity to 12 obtain an advantage over competitors who do not know or use it”). The Court has reviewed 13 Defendant’s sealing motion and the declaration submitted in support thereof. The Court finds that 14 Defendant has articulated compelling reasons to seal certain portions of the transcript and 15 privilege log. The proposed redactions are generally narrowly tailored. The Court’s rulings on the 16 sealing request is set forth in the table below. 17 ECF No. Document to be Sealed Result Reasoning 189-3 Tr. of Griffin Dep. GRANTED as to the This document 18 portions of the contains 19 document highlighted commercially at: sensitive and non- 20 28:1-25; public information. 42:1-18; Decl. of Rebekah S. 21 49:1-23; Guyon (“Guyon 50:9-25; Decl.”) ¶ 2, ECF 190- 22 51:6-25; 2. Additionally, it 23 52:1-25; contains information 58:1-5; 11-16; 19-22; regarding Quora’s 24 95:1-13; 22-25 investigation into the data breach incident 25 that could be used by a bad actor to exploit 26 and breach Quora’s 27 systems. Decl. of Zhe Fu (“Fu Decl.”) ¶ 5, 188-1 Privilege Log GRANTED as tothe | This document 1 1. all material in reflects how Quora 2 columns titled, pursued its internal “Recipients,” investigation of the 3 “Authors,” data breach at the “Document direction of counsel 4 Descriptions, and and contains non- 5 Privilege Claimed” public personal information of dozens 6 of individuals associated with the 7 investigation of the data breach. Guyon 8 Decl. 4 3. This non- 9 public information could be used by a 10 bad actor to harm Quora by revealing ll how it conducted its investigation. Id. a 12 13 Il, ORDER 5 5 For the reasons set forth herein, the Court GRANTS Defendant’s administrative motion to file under seal. 16 IT IS SO ORDERED. 17 18 Dated: November 13, 2020 19 kom Lh humans 20 BETH LABSON FREEMAN United States District Judge 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Document Info
Docket Number: 5:18-cv-07597
Filed Date: 11/13/2020
Precedential Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 6/20/2024