Stone Brewing Co., LLC v. Molson Coors Brewing Company
- Proceeding
- district
- Area
- civil
- On appeal
- Stone Brewing Co., LLC v. Molson Coors Beverage Company USA LLC (2024-12-30) — affirmed — the Ninth Circuit's later ruling on this docket
- Panel
- Roger T. Benitez (author)
Analysis
The court considered concurrent motions by the parties to file certain portions of their discovery dispute briefs, declarations, and exhibits under seal. The court granted the motions, directing the Clerk to file the unredacted versions under seal while maintaining redacted versions on the public docket.
| What the court decided | The model |
|---|---|
Granting motions for leave to file certain documents under seal“Accordingly, the motions to seal is GRANTED.” | agree with court The court applied the Ninth Circuit's standard from Kamakana v. City & Cnty. of Honolulu, which requires 'compelling reasons' to outweigh the public interest in disclosure. The court found that the documents contained commercially sensitive and proprietary business data, including trade secrets, which constitutes a compelling reason to seal. The documents were already designated confidential under a protective order. The decision follows from the law and the record recited in the order. |
The order itself: sound — The order correctly cites the binding Ninth Circuit authority (Kamakana) for the standard of review regarding sealing. It applies this standard to the specific facts presented (proprietary business data and trade secrets) and reaches a defensible result. The reasoning is concise but sufficient for a routine sealing motion.
Opinion
gar 2a ee 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 || STONE BREWING CO., LLC, | Case No.: 3:18-cv-00331-BEN-JMA Platt) ORDER GRANTING MOTIONS 13 Vv. . | FOR LEAVE TO FILE CERTAIN | 14 || MOLSON COORS BREWING CO., READ ND ABIBIES 15 MILLERCOORS LLC, and DOES 1 through 25, inclusive, [ECF Nos. 366, 370, 373] _ Defendants. 17 18 _ Concurrent with the Parties’ briefing on Plaintiff Stone Brewing Company, LLC’s 19. Objection to the Order Denying Plaintiff's Motion re Discovery Dispute, the Parties 20 || moved to file under seal certain portions of their briefs, declarations, and supporting 21 |} exhibits, 22 The portions of the briefs, declarations, and exhibits sought to be sealed contain, 23 reference, or discuss commercially sensitive and proprietary business data. These 24 || documents have been previously designated “Confidential” or “Confidential — Attorneys’ 25 Eyes Only” pursuant to the Protective Order issued in this case.. See ECF No. 54. 26 || Specifically, these exhibits contain business information including detailed business 27 || strategy and detailed agreements with third parties. 28 .
1 “[C]ompelling reasons sufficient to outweigh the public’s interest in disclosure and 2 ||justify sealing court records exist when such court files might . . . become a vehicle for 3 |}improper purposes, such as the use of records to . . . release trade secrets.” Kamakana v. 4 || City & Cnty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, .1179 (9th Cir. 2006). A “trade secret may 5 ||consist of any formula, pattern, device or compilation of information which is used in 6 || one’s business, and which gives him an opportunity to obtain an advantage over 7 ||competitors who do not know or use it.” The Court can seal proprietary information to 8 protect a business from potential harm. See Obesity Research Institute, LLC v. Fiber □ 9 || Research International, LLC, No. 15-CV-00595-BAS-MDD, 2017 WL 6270268, at *2 10 ||(S.D. Cal. Dec. 8, 2017) (granting motion to file documents containing proprietary 11 || business information under seal). 12 Accordingly, the motions to seal is GRANTED. Redacted versions of the 13 ||aforementioned documents have been filed on the public docket. The Clerk is directed to 14 || file unredacted versions of the documents and exhibits lodged at Docket Numbers 368, 15 and 374 under seal. 16 ITISSOORDERED. = 17 1g || DATED: Octobe? £2020 . Ho er T. Beni 19 Umited States DistrictCourt 20 21 22 || 23 24 25 26 27 28 .