North Star IP Holdings, LLC v. Icon Trade Services LLC
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:22-cv-07324
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In North Star IP Holdings v. Icon Trade Services, Judge Schofield granted Icon’s application to seal private ownership information in discovery filings.
Icon Trade Services LLC, Morris Missry, and other non-party owners of Icon whose private ownership information was at issue; the public’s access to the specified court filing was limited.
What happened
North Star IP Holdings, LLC v. Icon Trade Services LLC concerned Icon’s request to keep certain information from a letter about discovery disputes and an attached deposition transcript from public view. Icon sought to redact information about its ownership structure, its investors, and Morris Missry’s ownership stake.
Icon argued that this information was private, involved non-parties, and had little relevance to the court’s decisions. North Star and the other identified parties did not oppose the renewed request. Redacted versions of the filings remained available on the public docket.
Judge Lorna G. Schofield granted Icon’s application. She directed the Clerk to keep Docket No. 68 under seal, with access limited to the parties listed in an appendix, and to close the sealing motion at Docket No. 72.
The detailed version
- North Star IP Holdings, LLC v. Icon Trade Services LLC · No. 1:22-cv-07324
- Lorna Schofield
- Apr. 24, 2023
Background
Icon Trade Services LLC renewed its request to seal discrete portions of a joint letter concerning discovery disputes and a referenced excerpt of the Edery deposition transcript. Icon had previously moved to seal the materials, but the court denied that motion without prejudice to renewal. Icon then filed redacted versions as Docket Nos. 67 and 67-3 and unredacted versions as Docket Nos. 68 and 68-3.
The proposed redactions concerned Icon’s ownership structure, the identities of non-party owners, their ownership shares, Morris Missry’s ownership stake, and Icon’s number of investors. Icon did not seek to conceal the general statement that Mr. Missry had a significant ownership interest in Icon. Counsel for North Star IP Holdings, LLC, Jalapeno Pizza Holdings LLC, and Jalapeno Pizza LLC did not oppose the renewed request, according to the filing.
Court’s Analysis
The court applied the three-part inquiry used to decide whether court materials should be sealed. It concluded that the privacy interests of Mr. Missry and Icon’s other owners outweighed the comparatively weak presumption that the public should have access to the parties’ letter about a non-dispositive discovery dispute. The court considered the exact ownership information private, noted that Mr. Missry was a non-party, and found that the information had minimal relevance to the court’s decisions in the matter.
The court also recognized that disclosure of Icon’s number of investors and the amount of Mr. Missry’s ownership stake could permit inferences about other non-parties’ investments. The general information that Mr. Missry had a significant ownership interest remained accessible to the public.
Disposition
The court granted the application. The Clerk was directed to maintain the seal on Docket No. 68, with access limited to the parties listed in an appendix, and to close the motion at Docket No. 72. The order’s text specifically identifies Docket No. 68 in that sealing directive; the accompanying application also requested sealing of Docket No. 68-3, while leaving the redacted versions at Docket Nos. 67 and 67-3 publicly available.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.