ESC-Toy Ltd. v. Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC

Opinion

1 2 3 6 7 ESC-TOY LTD., Case No. 21-cv-00778-EMC

8 Plaintiffs, ORDER ON THE PARTIES’ 9 v. ADMINISTRATIVE MOTIONS TO FILE UNDER SEAL ENTERTAINMENT LLC, Docket Nos. 301, 315, 320, 336, 338, 341, 11 Defendants. 376, 377, and 378

12 13 The parties had filed several administrative motions to file under seal. See Docket Nos. 14 315, 320, and 336. The Court ordered the parties to re-file their administrative motions to file 15 under seal, narrowing and clarifying their requests pursuant to L.R. 79-5 and Kamakana v. City & 16 Cnty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178-79 (9th Cir. 2006). See Docket No. 186. Because these 17 filings pertain to Defendant’s Motion to Disqualify Plaintiffs’ counsel, Maschoff Brennan, which 18 is a non-dispositive motion, the sealing requests only need to meet the “good cause” standard. 19 In this instance, this case presents an unusual circumstance in which ESC-Toy’s (“ESC”) 20 counsel may no longer view portions of Ms. Gayner’s documents pursuant to the Protective Order. 21 See Docket No. 369. As such, the Court ordered that Sony Interactive Entertainment (“Sony”) 22 propose which portions of these documents need to be filed under seal in light of the Court’s 23 Protective Order as well as Sony’s confidential business information regarding its licensing 24 practices and business strategies. See Docket No. 186 at 2. 25 ESC’s new counsel, Call & Jensen, filed several oppositions to Sony’s new administrative 26 motions, requesting that the Court order that SIE provide ESC with an unredacted copy of the 27 sealed documents, so ESC’s counsel could determine whether any portion of the documents 1 The Court must first determine which documents must be produced to Call & Jensen. 2 There are several documents that must be withheld from Call & Jensen’s review because they 3 contain privileged information which Sony’s former counsel improperly shared with ESC’s former 4 counsel (who were subsequently disqualified from this case as a result). However, there are 5 several documents that should be shared with Call & Jensen because they are not tainted by the 6 prior inappropriate disclosure. 7 The Court’s ruling on the documents is set forth below. Document Identification of Portions to be Granted/Denied 8 Sealed 9 (denial means that the documents shall be sent to 10 ESC, but otherwise will still be sealed from the public) 11 SIE’s Motion to Disqualify 6:1-2 Grant Maschoff Brennan, Docket 11:19-20 12 No. 315. 17:11-14 13 SIE’s Motion to Disqualify 2:2-4 Deny Maschoff Brennan, Docket 3:19-21, 23-27 14 No. 315. 4:1-2, 6-8, 13-14, 21-23 5:8-10, 15, 21-22 15 6:6-10 11:1-7, 11-18, 21 16 18:1-5, 22-24 17 20:17-19, 26-27

18 Docket No. 315, Ex. 1 32, 34, 35, 39, 40 Deny 19 Docket No. 315, Ex. 6 116-117, 119, 128-129, 148- Grant 20 149, 181, 194-196, 202, 215- 216, 233, 236, 238, 245-247, 21 249-253, 260 Docket No. 315, Ex 11 369:23-25 Grant 22 370:4-6 Docket No. 315, Ex. 11 296:5, 8-9, 12-13, 18-19, 22- Deny 23 25 24 298:20-299:3 299:5- 6 25 300:1-4, 6, 8, 10-20 301:1-3, 8-9 26 313:15-23 314:1, 13-14, 18-19, 24-25 27 348:13-15, 18-20, 22-25 17-18, 20-21, 23-25 369:4-5, 8-10, 13-14, 16-17, 2 20 370:1, 3-9, 11-12, 14-15 3 389:1-6, 11-18, 20-21, 25 Docket No. 315, Exs. 3, 13, Sealed in its entirety. Grant 4 || | 17, 19, 22, 23, 28 5 Docket No. 315, Exs. 4, 9, 12, | Sealed in its entirety 16 6 Oppn to Motion to Disqualify, | 4:26-5:2 Grant Docket No. 320 7 Docket No. 320, Ex. A 118-125, 162-65, 230-37, Grant 8 250-53, and 258-61 Proposed Protective Order, Sealed in its entirety. Deny 9 Docket No. 336 10 In addition, the following administrative motions to file under seal are denied: Docket Nos. ll 301, 338, and 341.

W As to those documents ordered to be disclosed to Call & Jensen, the parties will have one 13 week upon receipt to meet and confer and report to the Court in a joint letter stating which

5 14 documents, if any, should be filed under seal and withheld from public disclosure. The letter shall

15 list those documents to be filed under seal and those not to be filed under seal. The parties shall 16 also list any documents upon which the parties disagree.

iv 18 This Order disposes of Docket Nos. 301, 315, 320, 336, 338, 341, 376, 377, and 378. 19 21 Dated: June 25, 2024 23 € t 24 EDWARD M. CHEN 25 United States District Judge 26 27 28