3DT Holdings LLC v. Bard Access Systems Inc.

Background

The parties submitted a joint letter identifying redactions they wanted to retain in earlier filings. The materials they described included confidential and proprietary product-development information concerning Penske and other technology; regulatory and marketing strategies for a medical device that had not yet been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration or released to the market; amounts of money at issue; internal financial information; and personal information.

Bard argued that disclosure could cause competitive harm, including by allowing competitors to gain an advantage in developing similar technologies or negotiating business arrangements. Bard also argued that disclosure of its regulatory strategies could affect the Food and Drug Administration’s future clearance of a medical device. The letter cited cases concerning public access to court documents, privacy interests, trade secrets, and competitive harm.

Ruling

The court approved the proposed redactions. It granted the motions to seal at Dkt. Nos. 71, 74, 81, 85, 91, 93, and 97 insofar as they requested the redactions identified in the submission. To the extent those motions sought additional redactions, the court denied them.

The court directed the parties to file the relevant documents on the public docket with the permitted redactions by March 4, 2022. Judge Lewis J. Liman also directed the Clerk of Court to close Dkt. Nos. 71, 74, 81, 85, 91, 93, and 97.