Osprey Media, LLC v. Connatix Native Exchange, Inc.

What the Court Did

The court entered a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). The order governs the disclosure and use of certain information produced in Osprey Media, LLC v. Connatix Native Exchange, Inc., including information connected to Connatix Native Exchange, Inc.’s third-party action against Joseph Velardo.

Information Covered

The order defines “Confidential Information” to include nonpublic business and personal information, such as contracts, business plans, financial information, marketing documents, private identifying information, trade secrets, and information that could cause embarrassment or reputational damage if publicly released. Publicly available material is excluded.

It also creates higher-protection categories for “Highly Confidential Information” and “Highly Confidential Source Code.” Highly confidential information includes particularly sensitive or competitively valuable material, such as financial information, trade secrets, and future business or product plans. Highly confidential source code includes programming-language files and related materials that define or describe software or hardware designs.

Who May Receive the Information

Access to ordinary confidential information is limited to lawyers and litigation-support staff, up to two designated employees for each corporate party, an individual party who signs the required acknowledgment, approved outside experts and consultants, certain witnesses, the court and its personnel, and other people approved by the producing party or the court.

Highly confidential information and source code may be shown to a narrower group. Source code may be inspected only by authorized people who have signed the required forms. Experts and consultants must receive advance notice, and the producing party may object. If the objection is not resolved, the objecting party must ask the court to rule within the period specified by the order.

Source-Code Procedures

The order requires source code to be made available for inspection on a secure, standalone, non-networked Windows computer at the producing party’s outside counsel’s office or another mutually agreed location. Reviewers may not bring devices such as cameras, phones, storage devices, or voice recorders into the review room.

The computer must include specified operating-system settings and software tools. Review is generally limited to five business days, with additional time available by agreement. Reviewers may take handwritten notes, but those notes receive the same highly confidential source-code protection. Printing is limited to an aggregate of 30 pages, with no more than five consecutive pages, unless the producing party gives written approval or the court later finds good cause.

Use, Challenges, and Continuing Duties

Confidential information may be used only to prosecute, defend, or settle this action. The order permits limited use of source-code excerpts in expert reports or deposition transcripts if they are properly marked and, when filed with the court, filed under seal as required by court rules and orders.

The parties may challenge confidentiality designations after first conferring directly with opposing counsel. Until the court resolves a challenge, the material must continue to receive the protection assigned by the producing party. The confidentiality obligations continue after the action ends. Within 60 days after final resolution, receiving parties must generally return or destroy covered materials, although counsel may keep one archival set of specified litigation papers and work product subject to continuing protection.

The order also addresses inadvertent disclosure, subpoenas, nonparties, modification, enforcement, and the court’s continued jurisdiction to enforce the order after final resolution of the action.

Disposition and Classification

Judge J. Paul Oetken entered the protective order. The order manages discovery and confidentiality; it does not resolve the underlying legal claims. This is classified as a procedural order.