Masterobjects, Inc. v. eBay, Inc.

Filing 102

SECOND ORDER RE: ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO SEAL (Dkt. No. 90). Signed by Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley on 10/31/2013. (ahm, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 10/31/2013)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 Northern District of California United States District Court 11 12 MASTEROBJECTS, INC., 13 14 Plaintiff, v. Case No.: 3:12-cv-680 JSC SECOND ORDER RE: ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO SEAL (Dkt. No. 90) 15 16 17 EBAY, INC., Defendant. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 The Court previously denied Plaintiff MasterObjects, Inc.’s (“MasterObjects”) Administrative Motion to File Under Seal a Joint Letter Brief regarding MasterObjects’ request to compel Defendant eBay, Inc. (“eBay”) to produce certain damages documents (Dkt. No. 90) and eighteen exhibits submitted therewith for failure to comply with Local Rule 79-5. (Dkt. No. 96.) The Court found that eBay, as the as the party asserting that the documents were confidential, failed to establish that the documents were in fact confidential as it: (1) failed to file “a declaration as required by subsection 79-5(d)(1)(A) establishing that all of the designated material is sealable” see L.R. 79-5(e)(1); and (2) did not “narrowly tailor” the request for sealing, and instead, sought to file the entire joint statement and exhibits under seal, see L.R. 79-5(b). 1 eBay subsequently submitted a declaration in support of sealing (Dkt. No. 100); instead, continues to maintain that the entire Joint Statement and eighteen exhibits submitted 4 therewith should be sealed. This request violates Rule 79-5(b)’s requirement that a request 5 for sealing be narrowly tailored. While certain trade secret documents and the facts discussed 6 therein may in fact be confidential, the parties’ legal arguments in the joint statement are not 7 confidential nor is every portion of every exhibit. For example, the Court fails to see how the 8 email at Docket No. 90-10 contains confidential information “describing planning, analytics 9 and development of eBay’s website.” (Dkt. No. 100 at 3.) Likewise, the entire six page 10 email at Docket No. 90-11 cannot be said to contain confidential information “describing 11 Northern District of California however, the declaration fails to address the second grounds for the Court’s prior Order, and 3 United States District Court 2 planning, analytics and development of eBay’s website.” (Id.) To the extent these and other 12 emails may contain some confidential information, eBay has wholly failed to establish good 13 cause to redact all the information including the email recipients and the date and time of the 14 emails. Further, with respect to deposition testimony, while portions of the testimony may be 15 confidential because they describe the “technical operation and analytics of eBay’s website” 16 (id. at 4), it is not evident why this confidentiality applies to those portions of the testimony 17 where the deponent is identifying other employees or departments within eBay, nor does it 18 apply to colloquies between counsel. (See, e.g., Dkt. No. 90-23 at 81:18-24, 82:8-20.) 19 Accordingly, the motion to seal at Docket No. 90 is DENIED for a second time. eBay 20 has until Monday, November 4, 2013, to file a declaration which comports with Local Rule 21 79-5 and addresses the issues raised herein. If eBay fails to timely file a declaration, 22 MasterObjects shall file (1) the unredacted Joint Statement, (2) Exhibits 1-15 to the 23 Declaration of Spencer Hosie in Support of Motion to Compel Production of Damages 24 Documents, and (3) Exhibits 1-3 to the Declaration of Christopher Shield in Opposition to 25 Motion to Compel Production of Damages Documents on the public docket in accordance 26 with Local Rule 79-5(e)(2). 27 // 28 // 2 1 2 IT IS SO ORDERED. 3 4 Dated: October 31, 2013 _________________________________ JACQUELINE SCOTT CORLEY UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 5 6 7 8 9 10 Northern District of California United States District Court 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3

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