Tevra Brands LLC v. Bayer HealthCare LLC

Background

Bayer filed an administrative motion to seal portions of, or entire, numerous trial exhibits. Bayer argued that the exhibits contained highly confidential information about its internal sales, marketing, pricing, and distribution strategies, as well as agreements with retailers and distributors. Bayer also stated that Elanco, as successor to Bayer HealthCare LLC, could be harmed if competitors and business counterparts learned how it structures its business arrangements.

Legal standard

The court explained that judicial records generally carry a strong presumption of public access. For records more than tangentially related to the merits of a case, a party seeking to seal them must show compelling reasons that outweigh the public’s interest in access. The court also noted that a request must be narrowly tailored. For records only tangentially related to the merits, the lower good-cause standard requires a particularized showing of specific harm from disclosure.

Ruling

The court found compelling reasons to seal the identified information and found Bayer’s request narrowly tailored. It granted the administrative motion to seal at ECF No. 496. The ruling covered Trial Exhibits 3, 10, 28, 33, 42, 47, 50, 65, 66, 69, 78, 79, 92, 194, 195, 196, 213, 514, 1003, 1004, 1005, 1012, 1014, 1028, 1029, 1043, 1055, 1056, 1057, 1058, 1067, 1069, 1073, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1086, 1414, and 1426. Depending on the exhibit, the order sealed the document in its entirety or the highlighted portions specified in the order. The court described the protected information as including marketing, sales, pricing, distribution, survey-method, retailer-agreement, distributor-agreement, and legal-policy information.