Brown v. Google LLC

Background

The court considered administrative motions for permission to file certain materials under seal. The materials were associated with discovery disputes in the case and included documents, deposition-transcript excerpts, and expert-report pages.

Courts generally recognize a public right to inspect and copy judicial records. A request to seal therefore begins with a strong presumption that the records should remain accessible. The required showing depends on the materials’ connection to the merits of the case. The court explained that materials more than tangentially related to the underlying claims generally require “compelling reasons” for sealing, while materials not related or only tangentially related to the merits may be sealed under the lower “good cause” standard in Civil Rule 26(c).

Rulings

The court held that the good-cause standard applied because the requested materials were submitted in connection with discovery-related motions rather than motions concerning the merits of the case. It noted that the court could reach different conclusions under a different standard or in a different context.

The court granted the sealing request concerning Docket No. 671 as to the specified portions of the plaintiffs’ administrative motion and several exhibits, including some portions of pages, specified transcript or document pages, and entire exhibits. It also granted the request concerning Docket No. 691 as to specified excerpts from a deposition transcript and an exhibit sealed entirely. Finally, it granted the request concerning Docket No. 721 as to specified redacted portions of the plaintiffs’ opposition and an exhibit sealed entirely.

The court’s stated reasons were that the materials contained Google’s confidential and proprietary information about sensitive features of its internal systems and operations. The information included internal projects, identifiers, proposed projects, metrics, proprietary functions, system designs, strategies, and business practices. The court found that Google ordinarily maintained the information as confidential, that it was not generally known to the public or Google’s competitors, and that disclosure could harm Google’s competitive position and increase cybersecurity risks.

Disposition

The court ordered the specified materials or portions sealed. This order addressed access to discovery-related court records and did not decide the merits of the underlying case. Judge Susan Van Keulen signed the order on September 28, 2022.