Google LLC v. Point Financial, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJune 6, 2025
Docket5:25-cv-04033
StatusUnknown

This text of Google LLC v. Point Financial, Inc. (Google LLC v. Point Financial, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Google LLC v. Point Financial, Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 SAN JOSE DIVISION 6 7 GOOGLE LLC, Case No. 5:25-cv-04033-BLF 8 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING TEMPORARY 9 v. RESTRAINING ORDER AND ORDERING DEFENDANT TO SHOW 10 POINT FINANCIAL, INC., CAUSE WHY A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD NOT ISSUE 11 Defendant. [Re: ECF No. 3] 12 13 Plaintiff Google LLC (“Google”) seeks to enjoin Defendant Point Financial, Inc. (“PFI”) 14 from (1) interfering with Google’s contractual relationships with non-party CNEX and certain 15 vendors with which Google works to manufacture and test used in its servers, and 16 (2)“taking possession of and/or selling to Google’s competitors software and equipment 17 containing Google’s intellectual property and trade secrets.” Dkt. No. 3-1 at 1. On May 8, 2025, 18 Google filed this lawsuit as well as a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary 19 Injunction. Dkt. Nos. 1 (“Compl.”), 3 (“Mot.”). Pursuant to the Court’s order setting a briefing 20 schedule on the motion, Dkt. No. 11, PFI filed an opposition brief, Dkt. No. 30 (“Opp.”), and 21 Google filed a reply, Dkt. No. 32 (“Reply”). The Court held a hearing on Google’s motion on 22 May 19, 2025, Dkt. No. 35, at which the Court issued an injunction from the bench. This Order 23 memorializes the Court’s ruling. 24 As discussed on the record at the TRO hearing, the Court ORDERS Defendant PFI to 25 SHOW CAUSE why a preliminary injunction should not issue on July 10, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. in 26 Courtroom 1 of the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building & United States Courthouse, located at 27 280 South 1st Street, San Jose, CA 95113. 1 I. BACKGROUND 2 Google is a multinational technology company with billions of users, many of whom store 3 information on (“ ”) . Mot., Ex. 3 ¶¶ 3–4. To 4 protect the information stored on these drives, Google must periodically update its security 5 hardware, software, and protocols. Id. ¶ 7. These updates require significant investment of 6 financial resources and engineering time, id. ¶ 8, and also sometimes involve work by outside 7 companies, id. ¶ 9. 8 This case involves such an external partnership. On August 2, 2016, Google entered into a 9 Master Purchase Agreement (“MPA”) with a company called CNEX Labs, Inc. (“CNEX”), which 10 had been founded in 2013. Mot., Ex. 2 ¶ 8; Mot., Ex. 4. Pursuant to that agreement, CNEX was 11 (“ ”) 12 . Mot., Ex. 2 ¶¶ 9–11. Three years later, 13 in September of 2019, Google and CNEX entered into Statement of Work No. 1171292 (“SOW”) 14 for the “ ,” which would involve 15 “ ” Mot., Ex. 2 ¶¶ 13–14; Mot., Ex. 5. 16 Thereafter, the SOW was amended multiple times. E.g., Mot., Ex. 6; Opp., Exs. A, C, D, E. 17 CNEX and Google were also parties to a non-disclosure agreement, Mot., Ex. 7, in addition to 18 confidentiality provisions set out in the MPA, Mot., Ex. 4 § 11. 19 The needed to be , 20 so Google provided certain intellectual property to CNEX to assist in development of the product, 21 including “ ,” and “ 22 23 ” of the . Mot., Ex. 3 ¶¶ 11–14. Google also communicated various 24 for the , including “ , 25 , and .” Id. ¶ 16. Although Google shared this information 26 for purposes of the project, the initial MPA between Google and CNEX stated that “ 27 1 As CNEX commenced work on the , it regularly 2 reported back to Google on its progress. Mot., Ex. 3 ¶¶ 32–33. CNEX and Google also 3 collaborated engineering and test runs, id. ¶ 34, and both CNEX and Google communicated with 4 various vendors that helped to manufacture and test the , see Mot., Ex. 2 ¶¶ 21–27. 5 Specifically, (“ ”) 6 , id. ¶ 24, (“ ”) 7 , id. ¶ 26, and (“ ”) 8 , id. ¶ 27; see also Mot., Exs. 8, 9, 10. 9 Google entered directly into agreements with each of these vendors, Mot., Exs. 8, 9, 10, though 10 CNEX received the orders from Google and relayed them to the vendors for production and 11 testing, Mot., Ex. 2 ¶ 22. 12 After several years of working together with Google on the 13 , CNEX ceased operations on April 12, 2024, notifying Google of its closure on April 15, 14 2024. Mot., Ex. 2 ¶ 35. Thereafter, Google sought to exercise a provision of the MPA stating that 15 the for the would be 16 17 . See Mot., Ex. 16. That provision states that CNEX granted to Google 18 19 20 21 22 Mot., Ex. 4 § 10.4(C). Accordingly, Google now asserts that “upon the cessation of CNEX’s 23 operations, Google received all license and access rights to continue the production of the 24 to ensure the completion of the .” Mot. at 8–9. 25 This dispute arose because, two months after CNEX ceased operations, Defendant in this 26 proceeding contacted Google to assert that it had a security interest in all of CNEX’s assets 27 pursuant to a loan from PFI on which CNEX had defaulted. Mot., Ex. 11. PFI asserted that such 1 used to manufacture the . See id. In August 2024, PFI proceeded to contact 2 Google’s vendors for manufacturing and testing of the to instruct them to discontinue using 3 the and the to fulfill 4 Google’s orders, asserting that to do so would violate PFI’s rights. See Mot., Exs. 14, 15. Google 5 responded by meeting with its vendors to assure them that it had the right to use the information to 6 continue to produce the Mot., Ex. 2 ¶¶ 37–42. However, Google believes that PFI intends 7 to continue to instruct “the Vendors that Google does not have the right to manufacture the 8 using the ,” and that PFI may attempt to sell the 9 to Google’s competitors. Mot. at 10. Since Google believes 10 those actions are in contravention of its agreements with CNEX and the vendors, Google filed suit 11 and sought a TRO to prevent PFI from taking either action. 12 II. LEGAL STANDARD 13 The standard for issuing a temporary restraining order is identical to the standard for 14 issuing a preliminary injunction. See Washington v. Trump, 847 F.3d 1151, 1159 n.3 (9th Cir. 15 2017) (“[T]he legal standards applicable to TROs and preliminary injunctions are substantially 16 identical.” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). An injunction is a matter of equitable 17 discretion and is “an extraordinary remedy that may only be awarded upon a clear showing that 18 the plaintiff is entitled to such relief.” Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 555 19 U.S. 7, 22 (2008). And “a TRO ‘should be restricted to . . . preserving the status quo and 20 preventing irreparable harm just so long as is necessary to hold a [preliminary injunction] hearing 21 and no longer.’” E. Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Trump, 932 F.3d 742, 779 (9th Cir. 2018) 22 (quoting Granny Goose Foods, Inc. v. Brotherhood of Teamsters & Auto Truck Drivers Local No. 23 70, 415 U.S. 423, 439 (1974)). 24 A plaintiff seeking preliminary injunctive relief must establish “[1] that he is likely to 25 succeed on the merits, [2] that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary 26 relief, [3] that the balance of equities tips in his favor, and [4] that an injunction is in the public 27 interest.” Winter, 555 U.S. at 20. “[I]f a plaintiff can only show that there are serious questions 1 injunction may still issue if the balance of hardships tips sharply in the plaintiff’s favor, and the 2 other two Winter factors are satisfied.” Friends of the Wild Swan v. Weber, 767 F.3d 936, 942 3 (9th Cir. 2014) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). 4 III. DISCUSSION 5 A. Analysis 6 1. Likelihood of Success on the Merits 7 The first Winter factor asks whether the Plaintiff is “likely to succeed on the merits” of his 8 claims. Winter, 555 U.S. at 20.

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Google LLC v. Point Financial, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/google-llc-v-point-financial-inc-cand-2025.