Head Sport GmbH v. Up Town Sport Inc.

What the court addressed

The opinion text includes Head Sport’s letter-motion asking the court to seal Defendant Jenny Sprizzo’s January 17, 2024 letter and attachments filed at ECF Nos. 20-1 and 21. The materials were part of a dispute involving the parties’ license agreement. The text also includes a temporary sealing order dated January 26, 2024.

Head Sport’s request

Head Sport asked to replace the publicly filed materials with redacted versions and keep the unredacted versions under seal. It identified information about the license agreement, including royalty rates, guaranteed minimum payments, product quantities, prices, invoices, payment obligations, a primary customer, supplier communications, settlement proposals, unsold inventory, and related sales terms.

Head Sport argued that it took substantial steps to keep this information confidential and that public disclosure could cause serious commercial injury, including competitive harm in the marketplace and in negotiations with licensees. Its letter cited the Second Circuit’s three-step framework for sealing judicial documents: determining whether the materials are judicial documents, weighing the common-law presumption of public access, and balancing competing interests against that presumption.

Temporary ruling

The court stated that it was still considering the arguments in Head Sport’s sealing motion. In the meantime, Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky temporarily sealed Jenny Sprizzo’s January 17 letter and the corresponding attachments. The Clerk of Court was directed to seal ECF No. 21, with access restricted to attorneys appearing for the parties and court personnel.

The text does not show a final ruling on Head Sport’s sealing request or address the underlying license dispute. The supplied metadata identifies Lewis Kaplan as the judge, but the order in the opinion is addressed to and signed by Robyn F. Tarnofsky; this summary follows the judge shown in the signed order.