BTL Industries, Inc. v. Bioskin Laser LLC
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:23-cv-09104
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In BTL Industries v. Bioskin Laser, Judge Moses denied redactions and required public filing of materials supporting the requested lost-profit damages.
BTL Industries, Inc. must publicly file the factual and evidentiary support for its proposed lost-profit damages, unless it limits its request to statutory damages. The order concerns materials submitted in the damages proceeding following the defendants’ default judgment.
What happened
BTL Industries, Inc. v. Bioskin Laser LLC concerns BTL’s request to hide information supporting its proposed $76,230 lost-profit damages award after the defendants were found liable by default for patent and trademark infringement. BTL said the information contained trade secrets and sensitive financial details.
The court explained that public access is especially important when information is the basis for deciding damages. Because the redacted information was the only support for the requested lost profits, the court ruled that the damages request could not be considered while that information and the supporting evidence remained secret.
Judge Barbara Moses denied BTL’s request to redact the proposed findings. She ordered BTL to publicly file unredacted versions of the proposed findings and a declaration by June 25, 2024, while allowing BTL instead to limit its request to statutory damages.
The detailed version
- BTL Industries, Inc. v. Bioskin Laser LLC · No. 1:23-cv-09104
- Lorna Schofield
- June 11, 2024
Background
BTL Industries, Inc. developed and sells the EMSCULPT body-contouring device and holds related patents and trademarks. The defendants—Bioskin Laser LLC, Bioskin Laser II LLC, and Santa Cohen—were accused of advertising body-sculpting services using a counterfeit EMSCULPT device. On March 22, 2024, District Judge Lorna T. Schofield granted BTL’s motion for a default judgment, finding the defendants liable under the Patent Act, the Lanham Act, and common law. Judge Schofield permanently barred further infringement and referred the case to Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses to determine damages.
BTL later filed proposed findings seeking $76,230 in lost-profit damages for patent infringement, potentially trebled for willful infringement; $300,000 in statutory damages for willful trademark infringement; or, alternatively, $76,230 in actual trademark damages, also potentially trebled. BTL asked to redact the factual support for the $76,230 figure, describing it as confidential information, trade secrets, and sensitive financial information.
Analysis
Judge Moses applied the presumption that judicial documents should be available to the public. She explained that this presumption is particularly strong when the information at issue forms the basis of the court’s decision. Although the defendants were in default and did not oppose the request, those facts did not eliminate the public’s access rights or change the required balancing of interests.
The court found that the redacted information was the only basis on which it could award the requested $76,230 in actual damages—or any other amount of actual damages. The court also found BTL’s broad claim that all information behind the figure was a trade secret unconvincing and noted that the claim was not supported by admissible evidence. The order did not determine the amount of damages.
Disposition
Judge Barbara Moses denied BTL’s letter-motion for permission to redact portions of its proposed findings. The court ordered BTL, by June 25, 2024, to publicly refile the proposed findings without redactions and the declaration supporting the damages calculation without redactions. Alternatively, BTL could limit its damages request to statutory damages.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.