Tevra Brands LLC v. Bayer HealthCare LLC
- Beth Freeman
- 5:19-cv-04312
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 4
In Tevra Brands v. Bayer HealthCare, Judge Freeman granted both parties’ motions to seal specified confidential trial-brief portions.
Tevra Brands LLC and Bayer HealthCare LLC. The order permits specified portions of their trial briefs to remain sealed and requires narrower public versions to be filed by September 20, 2024, where applicable.
What happened
Tevra Brands LLC v. Bayer HealthCare LLC involved two requests to keep selected portions of the parties’ trial briefs from public view. The court had previously denied both requests without prejudice because the parties had not submitted the required declarations.
After Tevra and Bayer submitted declarations, the court found compelling reasons to seal the specified portions. The information included confidential profits and losses, sales figures, customer information, marketing and pricing strategies, competitive analysis, and related business communications. The court also found that the requests were narrowly tailored.
Judge Beth Freeman granted Bayer’s motion at ECF No. 428 and Tevra’s motion at ECF No. 430. The parties must file public versions of the documents with narrower redactions, where required by the order, by September 20, 2024.
The detailed version
- Tevra Brands LLC v. Bayer HealthCare LLC · No. 5:19-cv-04312
- Beth Freeman
- Aug. 22, 2024
Background
The court considered two administrative motions concerning whether confidential material in the parties’ trial briefs should be sealed:
- Bayer’s motion at ECF No. 428, concerning material in Bayer HealthCare LLC’s trial brief. - Tevra’s motion at ECF No. 430, concerning material in Tevra Brands LLC’s trial brief.
The court had previously denied both motions without prejudice because the parties that had designated the information as confidential had not filed declarations supporting the requests. Afterward, Tevra filed a declaration supporting the sealing of portions of Bayer’s trial brief, and Bayer filed a declaration supporting the sealing of portions of Tevra’s trial brief.
Legal standard
Judicial records are generally presumed to be available to the public. Because the material was connected to the parties’ trial briefs and therefore more than tangentially related to the underlying claims, the parties had to show “compelling reasons” for sealing it. They also had to show that the requested sealing was narrowly tailored. The court explained that confidential business information, including business strategies, may satisfy this standard.
Court’s analysis
For ECF No. 428, the court approved sealing highlighted portions of Bayer’s trial brief because they contained highly confidential information about profits and losses, sales figures, internal communications concerning competitors and competitive analysis, and communications with named retailers concerning marketing and Tevra’s product. The court found compelling reasons to seal the material and found the request narrowly tailored.
For ECF No. 430, the court approved sealing highlighted portions of Tevra’s trial brief because they contained confidential information concerning Bayer’s customers, marketing strategies, and pricing strategies. The court again found compelling reasons and determined that the request was narrowly tailored.
Order and effect
The court ordered:
1. ECF No. 428 was GRANTED. 2. ECF No. 430 was GRANTED.
The parties must refile public versions of each filing by September 20, 2024, when the sealing and redactions granted by the court are narrower than the redactions in the existing public versions.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.