Pleiades Publishing Ltd. v. Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Background

Pleiades Publishing Ltd. and Pleiades Publishing, Inc. (together, “Pleiades”) submitted a letter concerning their petition for injunctive relief in aid of arbitration. The letter asked permission to file under seal limited portions of commercial agreements attached as Exhibits 1–3 and 6–7 to the declaration supporting a request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order.

The letter stated that the petition itself contained no information covered by the agreements’ confidentiality provisions and had been filed without redactions. Pleiades sought to redact specific economic terms in the attached agreements. It also stated that the case concerned journals subscribed to by libraries, universities, and government institutions and that it was not seeking to seal the entire case or any document in its entirety.

Sealing request

The letter described the agreements’ confidentiality provision. It defined confidential information to include nonpublic subscription lists, pricing policies, and other financial, editorial, and business information. It specifically provided that the agreements’ economic terms would be treated as confidential information of both Springer and Pleiades.

Pleiades cited the general presumption of public access to judicial documents and argued that the proposed redactions were narrowly tailored to protect confidential business information. The requested relief was permission to file the redacted versions until the parties could be heard further on the issue.

Ruling

Judge Edgardo Ramos’s March 11, 2025 endorsement states that the application was granted. The text does not state that the case or the exhibits were sealed in their entirety, and it does not provide a separate written analysis explaining the basis for the ruling.