Evolution Malta Limited v. Light & Wonder, Inc. ( 2024 )

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 * * * 4 EVOLUTION MALTA LIMITED, Case No. 2:24-cv-00993-CDS-EJY EVOLUTION GAMING MALTA LIMITED, 5 EVOLUTION GAMING LIMITED, and SIA EVOLUTION LATVIA, ORDER 6 Plaintiff, 7 v. 8 LIGHT & WONDER, INC. f/k/a SCIENTIFIC 9 GAMES CORP. and LNW GAMING, INC. f/k/a SG GAMING, INC., 10 Defendants. 11 12 Pending before the Court is Defendant Light & Wonder, Inc.’s Motion to Seal Exhibit 1 to 13 the Declaration of Jennifer Bennett in Support of the Pending Motion to Dismiss.1 ECF No. 35. 14 L&W sought and was granted permission to temporarily seal Exhibit 1 (a license agreement) on July 15 25, 2024. ECF No. 37. On July 31, 2024, Plaintiffs filed a response to the Motion to Seal. ECF 16 No. 39. In the response, Plaintiffs explain they had limited time to review and discuss the sealing of 17 the license agreement before it was filed as an attachment to the Motion to Dismiss. Id. Now, having 18 had an opportunity to conduct that review, Plaintiffs state the agreement can be filed on the public 19 docket with redactions. The redactions Plaintiffs seek pertain to specific portions of the license 20 agreement that include confidential business information the disclosure of which could potentially 21 cause competitive harm to Plaintiffs. 22 The party “who seek to maintain the secrecy of documents attached to dispositive motions 23 must meet the high threshold of showing that ‘compelling reasons’ support secrecy.” Wells Fargo 24 Bank, N.A. v. Saticoy Bay LLC Series 3948 Applecrest, Case No. 2:17-cv-01360-APG-VCF, 2020 25 WL 2311560, at *2 (D. Nev. Apr. 23, 2020) (quoting Kamakana v. City & County of Honolulu, 447 26 F.3d 1172, 1180 (9th Cir. 2006)). Requests to seal documents must be “narrowly tailored” so as to 27 seal “only the material that warrants secrecy.” Id. “Compelling reasons” must “outweigh the general 1 history of access and the public policies favoring disclosure, such as the public interest in 2 understanding the judicial process.” Allegiant Travel Co. v. R2 Sols. LLC, Case No. 2:22-cv-00828- 3 CDS-BNW, 2022 WL 3346666, at *1 (D. Nev. Aug. 11, 2022). “[C]onfidential business information 4 in the form of license agreements, financial terms, details of confidential licensing negotiations, and 5 business strategies satisfies the compelling reasons standard.” Id. at *2 (internal quotations omitted). 6 Courts in the District of Nevada consistently find compelling reasons to grant motions to seal where, 7 as here, the moving party seeks to redact limited confidential information relating to licensing terms, 8 royalty rates, and proprietary business plans. See, e.g., ImageKeeper LLC v. Wright Nat’l Flood 9 Insur. Servs., Case No. 2:20-cv-01470-CDS-MDC, 2024 WL 1330046, at *5 (D. Nev. Mar. 27, 10 2024) (granting motion to seal information relating to proprietary business information where 11 redactions were “narrowly tailored to only remove confidential information from the public eye”). 12 The Court finds the limited categories of information Plaintiffs seek to redact are the very 13 types of confidential licensing terms and proprietary business information that courts consistently 14 find support compelling reasons to seal. Thus, the Court finds compelling reasons to keep sealed 15 the unredacted version of the licensing agreement. The Court further finds a redacted version of the 16 agreement can be filed on the publicly available docket. 17 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Defendant Light & Wonder, Inc.’s Motion 18 to Seal Exhibit 1 to the Declaration of Jennifer Bennett in Support of the pending Motion to Dismiss 19 (ECF No. 35) is GRANTED in part. 20 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Exhibit 1 to the Declaration of Jennifer Bennett at ECF 21 No. 36 is and shall remain sealed. 22 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant L&W must file a redacted version of Exhibit 23 1 on the publicly available docket no later than August 12, 2024. The redactions are to comply with 24 Plaintiffs’ bullet points on page 4 of their Response to the Motion to Seal found at ECF No. 39. 25 26 27 1 || Before the redacted version of Exhibit 1 is filed, Defendant L&W must show a copy of the redact 2 || Exhibit 1 to Plaintiffs and obtain agreement to file the same. 3 DATED this Ist day of August, 2024. 5 . ELAYNAY. YOU: 6 UNITED.STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 8 10 1] 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28