proper to seal 6 “sources of business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing”
How later courts described this case
- proper to seal 6 “sources of business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing”
- sealing document which contained “pricing terms, royalty 15 rates, and guaranteed minimum payment terms”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
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5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
6 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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8 H.W.J. DESIGNS FOR AGRIBUSINESS, CASE NO. 1:17-CV-0272 AWI SKO
INC. AND SAMUEL STRAPPING
9 SYSTEMS, INC., ORDER RE: REQUEST TO FILE
DOCUMENTS UNDER SEAL
10 Plaintiffs
11 v.
(Doc. 145)
12 RETHCEIF ENTERPRISES, LLC A/K/A
RETHCEIF PACKAGING, AND L.P.
13 BROWN COMPANY, INC. D/B/A
INTERNATIONAL FIBER
14 PACKAGING,
Defendants
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16 Defendants have made a second request to file certain documents that support a motion to
17 dismiss under seal. Doc. 145. The opposing party was given e-mail notice of the request; no
18 opposition has been received.
19 All documents filed with the court are presumptively public. San Jose Mercury News, Inc.
20 v. U.S. Dist. Court, 187 F.3d 1096, 1103 (9th Cir. 1999). A request to seal records in relation to a
21 motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) or 12(b)(6) is evaluated under
22 the “compelling reasons” standard. See Schneider v. Sutter Amador Hosp., 621 F. App'x 480, 481
23 (9th Cir. 2015). “[T]he party must articulate compelling reasons supported by specific factual
24 findings that outweigh the general history of access and the public policies favoring disclosure,
25 such as the public interest in understanding the judicial process. In turn, the court must
26 conscientiously balance the competing interests of the public and the party who seeks to keep
27 certain judicial records secret. After considering these interests, if the court decides to seal certain
28 judicial records, it must base its decision on a compelling reason and articulate the factual basis for
1 its ruling, without relying on hypothesis or conjecture.” Kamakana v. City & Cty. of Honolulu,
2 447 F.3d 1172, 1178–79 (9th Cir. 2006), citations and quotations omitted. “The publication of
3 materials that could result in infringement upon trade secrets has long been considered a factor
4 that would overcome this strong presumption.” Apple Inc. v. Psystar Corp., 658 F.3d 1150, 1162
5 (9th Cir. 2011); see also Nixon v. Warner Commc'ns, 435 U.S. 589, 598 (1978) (proper to seal
6 “sources of business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing”), citations
7 omitted.
8 Defendants argue that their moving brief, two licensing agreements, and a letter contain
9 trade secrets. Specifically, the licensing agreements contain information about royalty structures,
10 payment terms, minimum purchase requirements, and commercial arrangements while the letter
11 includes customer lists and information about competitive strategies. The memorandum brief
12 discusses some of these details. Such kinds of information qualify as trade secrets that merit
13 sealing under the compelling reasons standard. See Elec. Arts, Inc. v. United States Dist. Court,
14 298 F. App'x 568, 569 (9th Cir. 2008) (sealing document which contained “pricing terms, royalty
15 rates, and guaranteed minimum payment terms”); E. & J. Gallo Winery v. Instituut Voor
16 Landbouw-En Visserijonderzoek, 2018 WL 4961606, *2 (E.D. Cal. Oct. 12, 2018) (sealing
17 document which contained customer lists).
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19 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendants’ second request to seal
20 documents is GRANTED. The following documents may be filed under seal:
21 • Memorandum in Support of Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff Samuel Son & Co. (USA)
22 Inc. for Lack of Standing (“Memorandum”);
23 • Exhibit A, which is a copy of the “Supply and License Agreement” executed by
24 Plaintiffs HWJ Designs for Agribusiness, Inc. (“HWJ”) and Samuel Son & Co. (USA) Inc.
25 (“Samuel”) on April 28, 2009;
26 • Exhibit B, which is a copy of the “Addendum to Supply and License Agreement
27 Dated April 28, 2009” executed by HWJ and Samuel on January 24, 2017; and
28 • Exhibit C, a copy of the July 10, 2019 letter from Jaimin H. Shah, attorney for
1 Rethceif, to Michael R. Houston, attorney for Plaintiffs.
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3 IT IS SO ORDERED. J
4 | Dated: _ October 24, 2019 ZS Cb ¢
_-SENIOR DISTRICT JUDGE
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