From Judge Thomas Rice (E.D. Wash.) Aug. 29 in Prepared Food Photos, Inc. v. Pool World, Inc., a copyright case in which the question is whether defendant has to redact certain materials from its summary judgment papers:
Defendant's motion for summary judgment rests on a statute of limitations defense, specifically that the discovery rule [under which the statute of limitations sometimes runs from when defendant discovered the infringement, rather than from when the infringement began -EV] is unavailable to Plaintiff as a matter of law in part due to Plaintiff's pattern of inequitable conduct toward Defendant and past accused infringers. The information Defendant seeks to [file not under seal] pertains to prior subscription fees and infringement settlement payments previously received by Plaintiffs. This information directly relates to the merits of Defendant's dispositive motion, and the "compelling reasons" standard [for determining whether the information should be sealed -EV] is appropriate….
Plaintiff asserts that settlement agreements entered into by Plaintiff and any infringer are subject to confidentiality clauses requiring the contracting terms be kept confidential. Therefore, unsealing documents that identify the infringer subject to the settlement agreement and the amount of the settlement paymhent would constitute a breach by Plaintiff for every respective settlement agreement. Plaintiff argues confidentiality of these terms is needed to protect both the infringer from revealing that it utilized copyrighted material and settled for a specified amount, thus inviting other copyright holders to pursue litigation against it, and Plaintiff from having prior settlements leveraged against it in future infringement claims.
The Court does not find compelling reasons exist to seal the payment terms of the settlement agreements but the payors identifying information may [be] redacted. While the Ninth Circuit has found private confidentiality agreements to satisfy the "good cause" standard for sealing non-dispositive motions and supporting documents, without more, they do not constitute a compelling reason to seal the information…. "That [the parties] agreed among themselves to keep the settlement details private, without more, is no reason to shield the information from … the public at large." ….
