In Re: MacBook Keyboard Litigation

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJanuary 31, 2022
Docket5:18-cv-02813
StatusUnknown

This text of In Re: MacBook Keyboard Litigation (In Re: MacBook Keyboard Litigation) 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
In Re: MacBook Keyboard Litigation, (N.D. Cal. 2022).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 SAN JOSE DIVISION 7 8 Case No. 5:18-cv-02813-EJD IN RE: MACBOOK KEYBOARD 9 LITIGATION ORDER RE APPLE’S ADMINISTRATIVE MOTIONS TO 10 SEAL PORTIONS OF BRIEFING RE APPLE’S MOTIONS TO EXCLUDE 11 EXPERT OPINIONS

12 Re: Dkt. Nos. 331, 334, 337, 342, 344, 349, 355, 357, 359 13 14 In connection with Defendant Apple, Inc.’s motions to exclude the opinions of Hal J. 15 Singer, Ph.D., David V. Niebuhr, Ph.D., and Charles M. Curley (Dkt. Nos. 333, 335, 336), Apple 16 seeks to seal portions of its opening briefs and supporting papers. Dkt. Nos. 331, 334, 337. The 17 parties filed similar administrative motions seeking to seal the same or similar material in 18 conjunction with Plaintiffs’ opposition briefs, Apple’s reply briefs, and their supporting 19 documents. Dkt. Nos. 342, 344, 349, 355, 357, 359. 20 This order addresses only the sealing requests in Apple’s motions to seal its opening briefs 21 (Dkt. Nos. 331, 334, 337). For the reasons stated below, the Court GRANTS IN PART and 22 DENIES IN PART the request to seal. 23 I. LEGAL STANDARD 24 “Historically, courts have recognized a ‘general right to inspect and copy public records 25 and documents, including judicial records and documents.’” Kamakana v. City & Cty. of 26 Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 27 U.S. 589, 597 & n.7 (1978)). Accordingly, when considering a sealing request, “a strong 1 presumption in favor of access is the starting point.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178 (internal 2 quotation marks omitted); see also Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 3 (9th Cir. 2003) (in considering whether documents should be sealed, courts “start with a strong 4 presumption in favor of access to court records.”). 5 Parties seeking to seal judicial records relating to motions that are “more than tangentially 6 related to the underlying cause of action,” Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 7 1092, 1099 (9th Cir. 2016), bear the burden of overcoming the presumption with “compelling 8 reasons supported by specific factual findings that outweigh the general history of access and the 9 public policies favoring disclosure.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178–79 (internal quotation marks 10 and citation omitted). 11 In determining whether there are compelling reasons to seal, “courts should consider all 12 relevant factors, including: ‘the public interest in understanding the judicial process and whether 13 disclosure of the material could result in improper use of the material for scandalous or libelous 14 purposes or infringement upon trade secrets.” Foltz, 331 F.3d at 1135 (quoting Hagestad v. 15 Tragesser, 49 F.3d 1430, 1434 (9th Cir. 1995)). Courts must “‘conscientiously balance[ ] the 16 competing interests’ of the public and the party who seeks to keep certain judicial records secret.” 17 Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179 (quoting Foltz, 331 F.3d at 1135). After considering these interests, 18 if the court decides to seal certain judicial records, it must “base its decision on a compelling 19 reason and articulate the factual basis for its ruling, without relying on hypothesis or conjecture.” 20 Hagestad, 49 F.3d at 1434 (citing Valley Broad. Co. v. U.S. Dist. Court for Dist. of Nevada, 798 21 F.2d 1289, 1295 (9th Cir. 1986)). Compelling reasons may exist to seal “trade secrets, marketing 22 strategies, product development plans, detailed product-specific financial information, customer 23 information, internal reports and other such materials that could harm a party’s competitive 24 standing . . . [but] courts should exercise caution not [to] allow these exceptions [to] swallow the 25 strong presumption in favor of disclosure.” In re Apple Inc. Device Performance Litig., No. 5:18- 26 MD-02827-EJD, 2019 WL 1767158, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 22, 2019). 27 II. DISCUSSION 1 Apple argues broadly that all of the information it seeks to seal is protectable as a trade 2 secret or is otherwise entitled to protection under the law. Apple organizes the large amount of 3 material it seeks to seal into four specific categories. In keeping with this organization, the Court 4 considers the material sought to be sealed by proffered category, rather than by document. 5 A. Specific Financial Information Regarding MacBooks Equipped With 6 “Butterfly” Keyboards 7 The first category of information Apple seeks to seal is “financial information . . . 8 including certain sales data, pricing information, and profit margin-related information pertaining 9 to the designs of the “butterfly” keyboards.” Dkt. No. 331 at 2; see also Dkt. No. 334 at 2. This 10 category includes information about the number of units sold, the prices at which various units 11 were sold, the repair rates for various models, and references to the production of profit-margin 12 data. Apple contends that this information, if disclosed, would allow Apple’s competitors to 13 unfairly compete with Apple by using the product-specific financial information in their own 14 forecasting and marketing or to tailor offerings and pricing to undercut Apple. The Court 15 previously granted Apple’s requests to seal some of the same or similar information in this case. 16 See, e.g., Dkt. No. 299. 17 Plaintiffs only oppose sealing estimates of aggregate damages. Dkt. No. 340 at 1. The 18 Court has already ordered that aggregate damages estimates should not be sealed and again denies 19 Apple’s request to seal that information. Dkt. No. 299 at 4:13, 16:5, 16:7. 20 The Court denies in part Apple’s request to seal information under this category as 21 follows: 22 Document Requested Redactions Plaintiffs’ Position Order 23 Name 24 Singer Motion 25 Exhibit 1: Page 3, ¶ 6 Oppose as to lines 3-5 of ¶ 6 Denied as to lines 3-5 26 Merits of ¶ 6 Expert Page 4, fn. 13 Oppose as to last line of fn Denied as to last line of 27 Report of 13 fn.13 Hal J. Singer, Page 17, column 3 of No position Granted 1 Ph.D. (Dkt. Table 3 2 No. 331-6) Page 19, lines 3-4, 8-9 Oppose as to the number Denied as to Column 3 of ¶ 32; Table 4 after the ≈ sign in ¶ 32 and of Table 4 and the 3 Column 3 of Table 4 number after the ≈ sign in the last line of ¶ 32 4 Page 23, lines 5, 7 of ¶ Oppose as to the number Granted 39; ¶ 40 after the ≈ sign in ¶ 40 5 Page 24, lines 6-7; Table Oppose as to Column 3 of Denied as to the 6 5 Table 5 number after the ≈ sign in lines 6-7 and 7 Column 3 of Table 5 Page 26, ¶ 44; fn 62 No position Granted 8 Page 28, ¶ 49; fn 68 No position Denied as to ¶ 49 9 Page 29, lines 1, 4; Oppose as to the number Denied as to line 1, the Table 6; ¶ 50; fn. 70 after the ≈ sign in ¶ 50 number after the ≈ sign 10 in ¶ 50, and fn.70 Page 30, Table 7; lines Oppose as to Column 3 of Denied as to Column 3 11 3-5 of ¶ 51; fn. 71 Table 7, lines 3-5 of ¶ 51, of Table 7, lines 3-5 of and the last line of fn. 71 ¶ 51, and the last line of 12 fn.71 13 Page 54, Table A1 Oppose as to the “Aggregate Denied as to Damages” column “Aggregate Damages” 14 column Page 55, Table A2 No position Granted 15 Page 56, Tables A3, A4 No position Granted 16 Page 57, column 3 of No position Granted Table A5 17 Page 58, Table A6 No position Granted Page 60, column 2 of No position Granted 18 Table A7; fn. 73 Page 61, column 2 of No position Granted 19 Table A8 20 Exhibit 2: Page 343, lines 2-3, 14- No position Granted Hal J. Singer 15, 20 21 Deposition Excerpts 22 (Dkt. No. 23 331-8) Exhibit 3: Page 11, lines 17-20, 25, No position Denied as to line 27 24 Merits 27 Rebuttal Page 12, lines 8-9, 15- No position Denied as to lines 9 and 25 Report of 16 16 Denise N. Page 19, line 5 of ¶ 28 No position Granted 26 Martin, 27 Ph.D. (Dkt. No.

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