Spectrum Dynamics Medical Limited v. General Electric Company
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:18-cv-11386
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Spectrum Dynamics v. General Electric, Judge Broderick granted GE’s request to file a discovery motion under seal to protect confidential product-development information.
General Electric Company and the other defendants and non-party identified in the filing, whose confidential product-development information was at issue; the public’s access to the letter motion was restricted.
What happened
Spectrum Dynamics Medical Limited v. General Electric Company concerns General Electric’s request to file a letter motion under seal. The motion sought to compel Spectrum Dynamics’s response to interrogatories.
GE said the filing discussed development of a product that was not publicly available. It argued that this information was proprietary, competitively sensitive, and covered by the parties’ confidentiality order.
The application was granted, allowing the motion to be filed under seal. The docket identifies Judge Vernon Broderick, while the document itself shows Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker approving the application.
The detailed version
- Spectrum Dynamics Medical Limited v. General Electric Company · No. 1:18-cv-11386
- Vernon Broderick
- Apr. 14, 2021
Background
General Electric Company asked for permission under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2(e), the court’s local rules, and the parties’ stipulated confidentiality and protective order to file under seal and with redactions a letter motion to compel Spectrum Dynamics Medical Limited’s responses to defendants’ second set of interrogatories.
The Request
GE stated that the motion referred to development of a product that was not publicly available. It characterized the information as proprietary and competitively sensitive, said disclosure would create a substantial risk of harm, and identified the information as “Highly Confidential — Attorneys’ Eyes Only” under the protective order. GE also argued that the information was not relevant to the court’s resolution of any issue and that its request was narrowly tailored.
Ruling
The application was granted. The document therefore authorized filing the letter motion under seal. The opinion’s text explains that courts may restrict public access to protect higher values, including competitively sensitive business information. The docket metadata identifies Vernon Broderick as the judge, but the document itself is addressed to and marked approved by Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.