Dental Monitoring SAS v. Align Technology, Inc.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided August 29, 2024·No. 3:22-cv-07335·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 9 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

10 11 DENTAL MONITORING SAS, 12 Plaintiff, No. C 22-07335 WHA 13 Vv. 14 || ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, INC.., ORDER RE MOTIONS TO SEAL 3 15 Defendant. a 16 2 17 This order addresses all remaining motions to seal and supporting declarations (Dkt. Z 18 Nos. 100, 102, 103, 107—10, 114, 119, 121, 123, 129, 135, 137-39, 142, 144, 146, 149). The 19 district court has jurisdiction to resolve them (see Dkt. No. 65 § 8). Brennan v. Opus Bank, 20 796 F.3d 1125, 1126, 1134 (9th Cir. 2015); cf Apple Inc. v. Samsung Elecs. Co., 727 F.3d 21 1214, 1220 (Fed. Cir. 2013). 22 1. THE LEGAL STANDARD. 23 There is a strong public policy in favor of openness in our court system and the public is 24 entitled to know to whom we are providing relief (or not). See Kamakana v. City & Cnty. of 25 Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178-80 (9th Cir. 2006). Consequently, access to motions and their 26 attachments that are “more than tangentially related to the merits of a case” may be sealed only 27 upon a showing of “compelling reasons.” Crr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 28 1092, 1101-02 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 580 U.S. 815 (2016). Filings that are only tangentially

1 related to the merits may be sealed upon a lesser showing of “good cause.” Id. at 1097. 2 Evidentiary motions, like motions in limine and Daubert motions, can correlate with the 3 merits. Id. at 1098–1100. Indeed, the “‘compelling reasons’ standard applies to most judicial 4 records.” Id. at 1098 (quoting Pintos v. Pac. Creditors Ass’n, 605 F.3d 665, 677–78 (9th Cir. 5 2010), cert. denied sub nom. Experian Info. Sols., Inc. v. Pintos, 562 U.S. 1134 (2011)). 6 Additionally, parties in this district must ensure their sealing motions meet basic 7 adequacy requirements. Above all, they must “narrowly tailor” requests “to seal only the 8 sealable material.” Civil L.R. 79-5(c). And they must list each document or passage to be 9 sealed together with its rationale for sealing. Ibid. For each listed, they must specifically state: 10 (1) the legitimate private or public interests that warrant sealing; (2) the injury that will result 11 should sealing be denied; and (3) why a less restrictive alternative to sealing is not sufficient. 12 Ibid. They must provide evidentiary support where necessary, such as by sworn declaration. 13 Ibid. And, for pleadings, parties must file both redacted and unredacted copies (or ensure 14 another party does) and include in the unredacted copies highlighting to show proposed 15 redactions. Id. at (d)–(e). Failure to follow the rules suggests a lack of cause or interest to 16 seal, and risks summary denial. See id. at (f)(6), (g)(2). 17 Redaction may be appropriate where publication “could result in infringement upon trade 18 secrets.” Apple Inc. v. Psystar Corp., 658 F.3d 1150, 1162 (9th Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 566 19 U.S. 986 (2012). So too where “business information” might “harm a litigant’s competitive 20 standing,” particularly where the public has “minimal interest” in that information. See 21 Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 598 (1978). And, in general, redaction will be 22 appropriate where publication would turn “court files [into] a vehicle for improper purposes,” 23 Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179 (quoting Nixon, 435 U.S. at 598), such as “to gratify private spite, 24 promote public scandal, [or] circulate libelous statements,” ibid. But “vague boilerplate 25 language or nebulous assertions of potential harm” will not suffice to support redaction. 26 Bronson v. Samsung Elecs. Am., Inc., 2019 WL 7810811, at *1 (N.D. Cal. May 28, 2019) 27 (citing Civil L.R. 79-5). Nor will mere “[r]eference to a stipulation or protective order.” Civil 1 [ultimately] bears the burden of overcoming th[e] strong presumption” of public access. 2 Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178. The final determination is “left to the sound discretion of the 3 trial court.” Ctr. for Auto Safety, 809 F.3d at 1097 (quoting Nixon, 435 U.S. at 599). 4 In this case, parties were warned that over-redaction would be rejected in toto (Dkt. 5 No. 65 4 5). Dental Monitoring took the warning to heart. It did not request any redactions. 6 Align’s initial motions to seal were denied across the board (see Dkt. No. 116). To its credit, 7 Align now files a superseding sealing motion to amend its other sealing motions and request 8 fewer redactions (see Dkt. No. 138; cf Dkt. No. 141-1). This order decides whether those 9 narrowed requests — plus other requests Align makes freshly — are narrow enough. The 10 assessment proceeds in the order of the underlying substantive motions. 11 2. MOTIONS TO SEAL STEMMING FROM DENTAL MONITORING’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT.

13 A. DENTAL MonrToRING’s Motion.

14 In a patent showdown with Align, Dental Monitoring moved for partial summary 3 15 judgment (Dkt. No. 101). Dental also moved to consider whether Align’s material therein

A 16 should be sealed (Dkt. No. 100). Align timely submitted a declaration supporting narrowed

s 17 redactions (Dkt. No. 107). Now, Align withdraws prior requests and moves for a still-narrower

Z 18 set of redactions (Dkt. No. 138 at 2). As to those final requests, this order rules as follows: 19 Sealed Document Result Re Reasoning [Prior] 20 Public Dkt. No. | Opening Brief | Blue boxes 19:13-19:23; 23:26—-24:12 21 138-8 GRANTED- Proposed redactions target detailed descriptions [107-1] IN-PART, of what is generally described in adjacent text. 22 (101) DENIED-IN-_ | These protect sensitive information from 3 PART. disclosure while providing the public what it needs to understand the case. GRANTED. 24 Otherwise 25 The remainder, however, do not strike that balance. They include basic descriptions of the 26 company’s service model and value 27 proposition. They include steps patients themselves perform. They describe high-level 28 tasks Align’s code performs that are easil

inferred from the equally high-level 1 descriptions of training processes disclosed 2 nearby. These proposed redactions are not credibly Align’s “most sensitive information” 3 (Dkt. No. 138-1 ¶ 5). DENIED. Dkt. No. Exh. 7, Blue boxes, The document is an internal memorandum 4 138-10 Align Memo DENIED. from two technical experts. In this passage, [107-4] Excerpt, however, the experts provide only high-level 5 (101-8) Align-DM descriptions of how the machine learning 6 0000350 works, not the “technical details” Align seeks to avoid disclosing (see Dkt. No. 138-1 ¶ 6). 7 Dkt. No. Exh. 8, Blue boxes, This document describes and diagrams 138-11 Align Memo GRANTED. commercially sensitive technical details in far 8 [107-5] Excerpt, greater measure than needed for public (101-9) Align-DM understanding (cf. previous entry). 9 0000044 10 Dkt. No. Exh. 10, Entirety, This one-page technical document “read[s] like 138-12 Align GRANTED. [a] ‘how-to’ manual[]” for aspects of Align’s 11 [107-6] Technical software (Dkt. No. 138-1 ¶ 7). Redaction is (101-11) Document, warranted (see previous entry). 12 Align-DM 13 0014487 Dkt. No. Exh. 11, Entirety, (See ibid.) 14 138-13 Align GRANTED. [107-7] Technical 15 (101-12) Document, Align-DM 16 0014494 17 Dkt. No. Exh. 12, Blue boxes, ¶ 133, 156 138-14 Expert GRANTED- The proposed redactions include high-level 18 [107-8] Mongan Rpt. IN-PART, descriptions as well as excerpts from passages (101-13) Excerpts DENIED-IN- for which redactions were already rejected 19 PART. (supra entry re Dkt. No.

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Dental Monitoring SAS v. Align Technology, Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2024).

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