Lonza Greenwood LLC v. Natals, Inc.

Background

Lonza filed a complaint against Natals, Inc., doing business as Ritual, and sought a preliminary injunction. Natals submitted an opposition and supporting materials. It then asked for permission to file certain documents under seal or in redacted form.

The request concerned Exhibits A, B, D, and F to a declaration supporting Natals’s opposition, as well as portions of the opposition and a declaration that quoted from Exhibit D. According to the filing, Exhibit A was a sales agreement; Exhibit B concerned clinical trials, ingredients, and testing results; Exhibit F contained preliminary plans for an unannounced product; and Exhibit D was a PowerPoint deck belonging to Lonza that Lonza claimed contained trade secrets.

Sealing request

Natals argued that the materials contained confidential pricing information, product specifications, ingredients, manufacturing plans, negotiation strategy, testing information, and product-development plans. It asserted that public disclosure could harm its competitive position. The filing discussed the common-law presumption of public access to judicial documents and the possible protection of proprietary business information and trade secrets.

Ruling

The court granted the request stated in the order. It authorized Natals to file redacted versions of Exhibits A, B, D, and F on the public record and to file unredacted versions under seal. The order did not state a separate disposition for the requested redactions to portions of the opposition or declaration. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer did not rule on the merits of Lonza’s preliminary-injunction request in this order.