Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. et al v. Sandoz Inc.
Filing
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ORDER Granting 155 Declaration of Anders Aennestad in Support of Sealing Portions of 155 Motion for Summary Judgment. Signed by Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe on 11/7/13. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - EDS)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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DISTRICT OF NEVADA
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SPECTRUM PHARMACEUTICALS, INC, et al,
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Plaintiffs,
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vs.
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SANDOZ INC.,
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Defendant.
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Case No. 2:12-cv-00111-GMN-NJK
ORDER GRANTING REQUEST TO
TO SEAL
(Docket No. 155)
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Pending before the Court is the Declaration of Anders T. Aannestad in Support of Sealing
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Portions of Spectrum's Motion for Summary Judgment. Docket No. 155. Defendant seeks to file under
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seal certain exhibits attached to Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment. See Docket No. 149; see also
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Docket No. 150 (redacted version filed on public docket). Pursuant to the procedure outlined by the
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Court, see Docket No. 152, and the Court’s Order, Docket No. 154, Defendant submitted a declaration
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in support of the request to seal. Docket No. 155. For the reasons discussed below, the Court hereby
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GRANTS the request to seal.
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I.
STANDARD
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The Ninth Circuit has held that there is a strong presumption of public access to judicial records.
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See Kamakana v. City & County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006); Foltz v. State Farm
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Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 (9th Cir. 2003). A party seeking to file documents under seal
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bears the burden of overcoming that presumption. Pintos v. Pac. Creditors Ass’n, 605 F.3d 665, 678
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(9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178). Parties “who seek to maintain the secrecy of
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documents attached to dispositive motions must meet the high threshold of showing that ‘compelling
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reasons’ support secrecy.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1180.1 Those compelling reasons must outweigh the
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competing interests of the public in having access to the judicial records and understanding the judicial
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process. Id. at 1178-79; see also Pintos, 605 F.3d at 679 & n.6 (court must weigh “relevant factors,”
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including the public’s interest in understanding the judicial process). The Ninth Circuit has indicated
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that “‘compelling reasons’ sufficient to outweigh the public’s interest in disclosure and justify sealing
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court records exist when such ‘court files might have become a vehicle for improper purposes,’ such as
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the use of records to . . . release trade secrets.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179.
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II.
ANALYSIS
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The documents at issue in the declaration are Exhibits 23-27, 31, 33, 35, and 37-38 attached to
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the Motion for Summary Judgement That Claim 2 of U.S. Patent No. 6,500,829 is Not Invalid, as well
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as certain information that has been redacted in the motion for summary judgment. See Docket Nos.
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149, 150, 155. Specifically, the exhibits are as follows:
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Exhibit 23: Memorandum dated September 5, 1986.
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Exhibit 24: Letter dated September 11, 1986.
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Exhibit 25: A Confidentiality Agreement.
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Exhibit 26: Letter dated January 22, 1986.
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Exhibit 27: Expert Report of Stephen F. Martin, Ph.D.
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Exhibit 31: Rebuttal Expert Statement of Thomas Bannister, Ph.D.
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Exhibit 33: Transcript of Stephen F. Martin, Ph.D. Deposition
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Exhibit 35: Transcript of J. Bryan Jones Deposition
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Exhibit 37: Letter dated November 28, 1986.
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Exhibit 38: Reply Expert Report of Stephen F. Martin, Ph.D.
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Kamakana and Foltz involve non-parties’ attempts to obtain sealed court documents. The same
analysis and standards apply to a party’s motion to seal. See Pintos, 605 F.3d at 679 n.5; see also
Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1182 n.9 (for the case before it, noting that “[t]he effective bottom line is that the
district court was determining whether documents should be sealed”).
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In support of the motion to seal, Defendant submitted the declaration of Anders T. Aannestad
stating, in part, that this information:
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concerns sensitive information relating to Sandoz’s Abbreviated New Drug Application
(“ANDA”) No. 230563 and Sandoz’s business practices.
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The information concerns the manufacture of the active pharmaceutical ingredient in
Sandoz’s proposed ANDA product that is highly confidential and presently unavailable
to the public.
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Disclosure of such information could injure Sandoz’s competitive posture, especially
given that Sandoz competes in the competitive and time-sensitive generic pharmaceutical
industry.
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Docket No. 155 at 2.
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The Court has reviewed each of the exhibits and redacted portions of the motion and concludes
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that they all contain or concern proprietary, trade secret, and technical information which warrants
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keeping them sealed. Further, the Court finds that both good cause and compelling reasons exist to seal
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this information that overcome the presumption of public access, that the information within the motion
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has been properly redacted, and that the documents in the exhibits cannot be easily redacted while
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leaving meaningful information available to the public.
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III.
CONCLUSION
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For good cause shown, the unredacted motion and declaration at Docket No. 149 will remain
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under seal and no further filing of redacted versions is required.
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
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DATED: November 7, 2013
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______________________________________
NANCY J. KOPPE
United States Magistrate Judge
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