The Sanborn Library LLC v. ERIS Information Inc.

Background

ERIS Information Inc., ERIS Limited Partnership, and Eco Log Environmental Risk Information Services Ltd. asked the court for permission to file under seal portions of ERIS’s reply supporting its motion to compel production of allegedly privileged documents. The request concerned portions of the reply that quoted or closely paraphrased exhibits from a declaration submitted with the motion to compel.

The request stated that the exhibits had been designated confidential or highly confidential under the amended protective order. The materials included excerpts from Environmental Data Resources, LLC’s privilege logs; documents concerning its copyright research, business affairs, and marketing, sales, and litigation strategies; communications between its counsel and the Federal Trade Commission concerning an investigation; and excerpts from deposition testimony by EDR employee Paul Schiffer.

Sealing request

ERIS argued that the quoted material contained commercially sensitive information whose disclosure could cause competitive injury. It said the request was narrowly limited to portions of the reply that implicated confidential information and that the interest in protecting that information outweighed the public-access presumption applicable to court records. The request also stated that the material supported a non-dispositive motion and was not part of a pleading. The parties’ counsel had conferred, and the request stated that the parties consented to it.

Ruling

Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang granted the application. The Clerk of Court was directed to close docket entry 175. The order itself did not give further reasoning or specify the precise portions sealed beyond the descriptions in ERIS’s request.