In Re: MacBook Keyboard Litigation

District Court, N.D. California·Decided January 31, 2022·No. 5:18-cv-02813·Unknown

Opinion

Case No. 5:18-cv-02813-EJD IN RE: MACBOOK KEYBOARD ADMINISTRATIVE MOTIONS TO SEAL PORTIONS OF BRIEFING RE APPLE’S MOTIONS TO EXCLUDE

Re: Dkt. Nos. 331, 334, 337, 342, 344, 349, 355, 357, 359 In connection with Defendant Apple, Inc.’s motions to exclude the opinions of Hal J. Singer, Ph.D., David V. Niebuhr, Ph.D., and Charles M. Curley (Dkt. Nos. 333, 335, 336), Apple seeks to seal portions of its opening briefs and supporting papers. Dkt. Nos. 331, 334, 337. The parties filed similar administrative motions seeking to seal the same or similar material in conjunction with Plaintiffs’ opposition briefs, Apple’s reply briefs, and their supporting documents. Dkt. Nos. 342, 344, 349, 355, 357, 359. This order addresses only the sealing requests in Apple’s motions to seal its opening briefs (Dkt. Nos. 331, 334, 337). For the reasons stated below, the Court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART the request to seal. I. LEGAL STANDARD “Historically, courts have recognized a ‘general right to inspect and copy public records and documents, including judicial records and documents.’” Kamakana v. City & Cty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Commc’ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 597 & n.7 (1978)). Accordingly, when considering a sealing request, “a strong presumption in favor of access is the starting point.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 (9th Cir. 2003) (in considering whether documents should be sealed, courts “start with a strong presumption in favor of access to court records.”). Parties seeking to seal judicial records relating to motions that are “more than tangentially related to the underlying cause of action,” Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1099 (9th Cir. 2016), bear the burden of overcoming the presumption with “compelling reasons supported by specific factual findings that outweigh the general history of access and the public policies favoring disclosure.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178–79 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In determining whether there are compelling reasons to seal, “courts should consider all relevant factors, including: ‘the public interest in understanding the judicial process and whether disclosure of the material could result in improper use of the material for scandalous or libelous purposes or infringement upon trade secrets.” Foltz, 331 F.3d at 1135 (quoting Hagestad v. Tragesser, 49 F.3d 1430, 1434 (9th Cir. 1995)). Courts must “‘conscientiously balance[ ] the competing interests’ of the public and the party who seeks to keep certain judicial records secret.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179 (quoting Foltz, 331 F.3d at 1135). After considering these interests, if the court decides to seal certain judicial records, it must “base its decision on a compelling reason and articulate the factual basis for its ruling, without relying on hypothesis or conjecture.” Hagestad, 49 F.3d at 1434 (citing Valley Broad. Co. v. U.S. Dist. Court for Dist. of Nevada, 798 F.2d 1289, 1295 (9th Cir. 1986)). Compelling reasons may exist to seal “trade secrets, marketing strategies, product development plans, detailed product-specific financial information, customer information, internal reports and other such materials that could harm a party’s competitive standing . . . [but] courts should exercise caution not [to] allow these exceptions [to] swallow the strong presumption in favor of disclosure.” In re Apple Inc. Device Performance Litig., No. 5:18- MD-02827-EJD, 2019 WL 1767158, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 22, 2019). II. DISCUSSION Apple argues broadly that all of the information it seeks to seal is protectable as a trade secret or is otherwise entitled to protection under the law. Apple organizes the large amount of material it seeks to seal into four specific categories. In keeping with this organization, the Court considers the material sought to be sealed by proffered category, rather than by document. A. Specific Financial Information Regarding MacBooks Equipped With “Butterfly” Keyboards The first category of information Apple seeks to seal is “financial information . . . including certain sales data, pricing information, and profit margin-related information pertaining to the designs of the “butterfly” keyboards.” Dkt. No. 331 at 2; see also Dkt. No. 334 at 2. This category includes information about the number of units sold, the prices at which various units were sold, the repair rates for various models, and references to the production of profit-margin data. Apple contends that this information, if disclosed, would allow Apple’s competitors to unfairly compete with Apple by using the product-specific financial information in their own forecasting and marketing or to tailor offerings and pricing to undercut Apple. The Court previously granted Apple’s requests to seal some of the same or similar information in this case. See, e.g., Dkt. No. 299. Plaintiffs only oppose sealing estimates of aggregate damages. Dkt. No. 340 at 1. The Court has already ordered that aggregate damages estimates should not be sealed and again denies Apple’s request to seal that information. Dkt. No. 299 at 4:13, 16:5, 16:7. The Court denies in part Apple’s request to seal information under this category as follows: Document Requested Redactions Plaintiffs’ Position Order Name Singer Motion Exhibit 1: Page 3, ¶ 6 Oppose as to lines 3-5 of ¶ 6 Denied as to lines 3-5 Merits of ¶ 6 Expert Page 4, fn. 13 Oppose as to last line of fn Denied as to last line of Report of 13 fn.13 Hal J. Singer, Page 17, column 3 of No position Granted Ph.D. (Dkt. Table 3 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 Column 3 of Table 4 number after the ≈ sign in the last line of ¶ 32 Page 23, lines 5, 7 of ¶ Oppose as to the number Granted 39; ¶ 40 after the ≈ sign in ¶ 40 Page 24, lines 6-7; Table Oppose as to Column 3 of Denied as to the 5 Table 5 number after the ≈ sign in lines 6-7 and Column 3 of Table 5 Page 26, ¶ 44; fn 62 No position Granted Page 28, ¶ 49; fn 68 No position Denied as to ¶ 49 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 in ¶ 50, and fn.70 Page 30, Table 7; lines Oppose as to Column 3 of Denied as to Column 3 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 fn.71 Page 54, Table A1 Oppose as to the “Aggregate Denied as to Damages” column “Aggregate Damages” column Page 55, Table A2 No position Granted Page 56, Tables A3, A4 No position Granted Page 57, column 3 of No position Granted Table A5 Page 58, Table A6 No position Granted Page 60, column 2 of No position Granted Table A7; fn. 73 Page 61, column 2 of No position Granted Table A8 Exhibit 2: Page 343, lines 2-3, 14- No position Granted Hal J. Singer 15, 20 Deposition Excerpts (Dkt. No. 331-8) Exhibit 3: Page 11, lines 17-20, 25, No position Denied as to line 27 Merits 27 Rebuttal Page 12, lines 8-9, 15- No position Denied as to lines 9 and Report of 16 16 Denise N. Page 19, line 5 of ¶ 28 No position Granted Martin, Ph.D. (Dkt. No. 331-10) Exhibit 4: Page 14, line 2 No position Granted Rebuttal Page 16, ¶ 43; fn. 51 No position Granted Expert Exhibit 1 No position Granted Report of Exhibit 2 No position Granted Chen Song, Ph.D. (Dkt. No. 331-12) Exhibit 14: Page 44, ¶ 81 No position Granted Reply Merits Page 45, Table 1 No position Granted Expert Report of Hal J. Singer, Ph.D. (Dkt. No. 331-14)

Niebuhr Motion

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

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