RWS and Associates Entertainment, Inc. v. Iron, Wood & Glitter, LLC

Nature of the Order

The court entered a stipulated protective order after the parties agreed to confidentiality terms. The order governs the pretrial exchange and use of discovery materials—information exchanged during the case.

Confidentiality Rules

A producing person may designate discovery material as “Confidential” if it contains nonpublic business, commercial, financial, or personal information whose disclosure could, in that person’s good-faith view, harm privacy interests or confidential business, commercial, financial, or personal interests. Confidential material generally may not be disclosed except to people identified in the order.

Permitted recipients include the parties; counsel and their assigned staff; people identified on the face of a document as its author, addressee, or recipient; certain witnesses; experts and other specialized advisers; deposition stenographers; the court and its personnel; jurors; and anyone else whom the court directs. Witnesses and experts must receive the order and sign a non-disclosure agreement, subject to the order’s provision allowing certain deposition witnesses to agree on the record.

The order also permits confidentiality designations for material inadvertently produced without a designation, as long as the producing person gives written notice before trial. A person who objects to a designation or seeks stricter limits on disclosure may provide written notice explaining the grounds. If the parties cannot resolve the dispute, the party seeking the designation may ask the court to rule on it.

Privileged Material and Filing Under Seal

If a party later claims that produced material is protected by attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine, the disclosure does not waive that protection under the order’s Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d) provision. After written notice, the receiving party generally must return or destroy the material within five business days unless it asks the court to compel production.

The order states that confidential discovery materials and filings revealing them are to be filed under seal in accordance with the court’s procedures. It also calls for a public redacted version and a public docket letter unless the court directs otherwise. But the court added an important limitation: it had not reviewed the documents and made no finding that any document is confidential. The parties must obtain a prior court order before sealing documents; the protective order itself does not authorize sealing without that review.

Effect After the Case

The order remains effective after the litigation ends. Within 30 days after final disposition, confidential discovery materials must be returned or destroyed, unless the producing person permits destruction or retention under the order’s terms. Counsel may retain a file copy for their records, but may not disclose confidential discovery materials except as required by a court order or in response to certain malpractice or disciplinary complaints.

The order does not decide whether any material is discoverable, relevant, or admissible, and it does not waive objections to those issues. It also allows a party to ask the court to modify the order.

Disposition

The court ordered the parties to follow the stipulated confidentiality terms, while declining to approve any provision that would permit sealing without a separate court order. The court’s order did not decide the confidentiality of any particular document.