Taction Technology, Inc. v. Apple Inc.

District Court, S.D. California·Decided September 13, 2021·No. 3:21-cv-00812·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 TACTION TECHNOLOGY, INC., Case No.: 21-cv-00812-GPC-JLB

12 Plaintiff, ORDER: 13 v. (1) GRANTING JOINT MOTION 14 APPLE INC., FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER; AND 15 Defendant. (2) ENTERING STIPULATED 16 PROTECTIVE ORDER 17 [ECF No. 36] 18 19 Before the Court is the parties’ Joint Motion for Protective Order. (ECF No. 36.) 20 In their Joint Motion, the parties provide that they have stipulated to a Protective Order, 21 except for Paragraph 9(b)(ii), which contemplates whether in-house counsel may access 22 materials designated as “CONFIDENTIAL – ATTORNEYS’ EYES ONLY” (“C-AEO”). 23 (Id. at 2.) The parties request that the Court “select between the parties’ competing 24 proposals.” (Id.) The Court declines to enter a Stipulated Protective Order that includes a 25 contested provision, as it would not be “stipulated,” and will rule on the parties’ dispute 26 concerning in-house counsels’ access to C-AEO materials under separate order. 27 /// 28 /// 1 Good cause appearing as to the parties’ agreed-upon provisions, the parties Joint 2 Motion (ECF No. 36) is GRANTED, and the Stipulated Protective Order is entered as 3 follows: 4 Plaintiff Taction Technology, Inc. (“Plaintiff”) and Defendant Apple Inc. 5 (“Defendant”) anticipate that documents, testimony, or information containing or 6 reflecting confidential, proprietary, trade secret, and/or commercially sensitive information 7 are likely to be disclosed or produced during the course of discovery, initial disclosures, 8 and supplemental disclosures in this case and request that the Court enter this Order setting 9 forth the conditions for treating, obtaining, and using such information. 10 Pursuant to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Court finds good 11 cause for the following Agreed Protective Order Regarding the Disclosure and Use of 12 Discovery Materials (“Order” or “Protective Order”). 13 1. PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS 14 (a) Protected Material designated under the terms of this Protective Order 15 shall be used by a Receiving Party solely for this case, and shall not be used directly or 16 indirectly for any other purpose whatsoever. 17 (b) The Parties acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket 18 protections on all disclosures during discovery, or in the course of making initial or 19 supplemental disclosures under Rule 26(a). Designations under this Order shall be made 20 with care and shall not be made absent a good faith belief that the designated material 21 satisfies the criteria set forth below. If it comes to a Producing Party’s attention that 22 designated material does not qualify for protection at all, or does not qualify for the level 23 of protection initially asserted, the Producing Party must promptly notify all other Parties 24 that it is withdrawing or changing the designation. 25 2. DEFINITIONS 26 (a) “Discovery Material” means all items or information, including from 27 any non-party, regardless of the medium or manner generated, stored, or maintained 28 (including, among other things, testimony, transcripts, or tangible things) that are 1 produced, disclosed, or generated in connection with discovery or Rule 26(a) disclosures 2 in this case. 3 (b) “Outside Counsel” means (i) outside counsel who appear on the 4 pleadings as counsel for a Party and (ii) partners, associates, and staff of such counsel to 5 whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation. 6 (c) “Patents-in-suit” means U.S. Patent Nos. 10,659,885 (“the ’885 7 patent”) and U.S. Patent No. 10,820,117 (“the ’117 patent”), and any other patent asserted 8 in this action, as well as any related patents, patent applications, provisional patent 9 applications, continuations, and/or divisionals. 10 (d) “Party” means any party to this case, including all of its officers, 11 directors, employees, consultants, retained experts, and outside counsel and their support 12 staffs. 13 (e) “Producing Party” means any Party or non-party that discloses or 14 produces any Discovery Material in this case. 15 (f) “Protected Material” means any Discovery Material that is designated 16 as “CONFIDENTIAL,” “CONFIDENTIAL – ATTORNEYS’ EYES ONLY,” or 17 “CONFIDENTIAL – OUTSIDE ATTORNEYS’ EYES ONLY – SOURCE CODE,” as 18 provided for in this Order. Protected Material shall not include: (i) advertising materials 19 that have been actually published or publicly disseminated; and (ii) materials that show on 20 their face they have been disseminated to the public. 21 (g) “Receiving Party” means any Party who receives Discovery Material 22 from a Producing Party. 23 (h) “Source Code” means computer code, scripts, assembly, binaries, 24 object code, source code listings (e.g., file names and path structure), descriptions of source 25 code (e.g., descriptions of declarations, functions, and parameters), object code listings and 26 descriptions of object code, Hardware Description Language (HDL) or Register Transfer 27 Level (RTL) files that describe the hardware design of any ASIC or other chip, and 28 Computer Aided Design (CAD) files that describe the hardware design of any component. 1 3. COMPUTATION OF TIME 2 The computation of any period of time prescribed or allowed by this Order 3 shall be governed by the provisions for computing time set forth in Federal Rules of Civil 4 Procedure 6. 5 4. SCOPE 6 (a) The protections conferred by this Order cover not only Discovery 7 Material governed by this Order as addressed herein, but also any information copied or 8 extracted therefrom, as well as all copies, excerpts, summaries, or compilations thereof, 9 plus testimony, conversations, or presentations by Parties or their counsel in court or in 10 other settings that might reveal Protected Material. 11 (b) Nothing in this Protective Order shall prevent or restrict a Producing 12 Party’s own disclosure or use of its own Protected Material for any purpose, and nothing 13 in this Order shall preclude any Producing Party from showing its Protected Material to an 14 individual who prepared the Protected Material. 15 (c) Nothing in this Order shall be construed to prejudice any Party’s right 16 to use any Protected Material in court or in any court filing with the consent of the 17 Producing Party or by order of the Court. 18 (d) This Order is without prejudice to the right of any Party to seek further 19 or additional protection of any Discovery Material or to modify this Order in any way, 20 including, without limitation, an order that certain matter not be produced at all. 21 5. DURATION 22 Even after the termination of this case, the confidentiality obligations imposed 23 by this Order shall remain in effect until a Producing Party agrees otherwise in writing or 24 a court order otherwise directs. 25 6. ACCESS TO AND USE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL 26 (a) Basic Principles. All Protected Material shall be used solely for this case 27 or any related appellate proceeding, and not for any other purpose. Protected Material shall 28 /// 1 not be distributed, disclosed or made available to anyone except as expressly provided in 2 this Order. 3 (b) Patent Prosecution Bar.

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Taction Technology, Inc. v. Apple Inc., (S.D. Cal. 2021).

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