Skillz Platform Inc. v. AviaGames Inc.

Background

Skillz Platform Inc. filed an administrative motion asking to seal portions of its opposition to AviaGames Inc.’s administrative motion to seal. Skillz stated that the highlighted portions contained information AviaGames had designated as highly confidential.

Legal standard

Federal courts generally recognize public access to judicial records. Under Ninth Circuit law, materials more than tangentially related to a case’s merits may be sealed only for “compelling reasons,” while materials only tangentially related to the merits may be sealed upon a showing of “good cause.” The court held that the good-cause standard applied because this filing concerned an opposition to a sealing motion and was only tangentially related to the case’s merits.

The court also applied Civil Local Rule 79-5(f). When a party seeks to seal material designated confidential by another party, the filing party must submit a motion asking whether the other party’s material should be sealed. The party that designated the material confidential must then file, within seven days, a statement or declaration supporting sealing. Failure to do so may result in denial of the sealing request and unsealing of the provisionally sealed material.

Ruling

The court construed Skillz’s filing as a motion to consider whether another party’s material should be sealed. Because AviaGames had not filed the required statement or declaration, the court denied Skillz’s administrative motion to file under seal without prejudice. AviaGames could file a statement supporting sealing within 10 days of the order. The opinion did not decide whether the disputed material ultimately should remain sealed.