Finjan, LLC. v. Cisco Systems Inc.

United States District Court for the Northern District of California

Finjan, LLC. v. Cisco Systems Inc.

Trial Court Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 FINJAN, INC., Case No. 17-cv-00072-BLF (SVK)

8 Plaintiff, ORDER ON MOTIONS TO SEAL 9 v. Re: Dkt. Nos. 618, 626, 637, 653 10 CISCO SYSTEMS INC., 11 Defendant.

12 The Administrative Motions to File Documents Under Seal currently before the Court 13 include motions filed by Plaintiff Finjan, Inc. (Dkt. 618, 626, and 653) and Defendant Cisco 14 Systems Inc. (Dkt. 637) (collectively, the “Motions”) seeking to seal certain materials submitted to 15 the Court in connection with (1) Finjan’s Motion for Leave to File a Motion for Reconsideration 16 of the Court’s Order on Cisco’s Motion to Strike Portions of Finjan’s Amended Expert Report, 17 and (2) Finjan’s Motion for Reconsideration of the Court’s Order on Cisco’s Motion to Strike 18 Portions of Finjan’s Amended Expert Reports. 19 Courts recognize a “general right to inspect and copy public records and documents, 20 including judicial records and documents.” Kamakana v. City & Cnty. Of Honolulu,

447 F.3d 21 1172, 1178

(9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Communs., Inc.,

435 U.S. 589

, 597 & n.7 22 (1978)). A request to seal court records therefore starts with a “strong presumption in favor of 23 access.” Kamakana,

447 F.3d at 1178

(quoting Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.,

331 F.3d 24

1122, 1135 (9th Cir. 2003)). The standard for overcoming the presumption of public access to 25 court records depends on the purpose for which the records are filed with the court. A party 26 seeking to seal court records relating to motions that are “more than tangentially related to the 27 underlying cause of action” must demonstrate “compelling reasons” that support secrecy. Ctr. For 1 motions that re “not related, or only tangentially related, to the merits of the case,” the lower 2 “good cause” standard of Rule 26(c) applies. Id.; see also Kamakana,

447 F.3d at 1179

. A party 3 moving to seal court records must also comply with the procedures established by Civil Local 4 Rule 79-5. 5 Here, the “good cause” standard applies because the information the parties seek to seal 6 was submitted to the Court in connection with a discovery-related motion, rather than a motion 7 that concerns the merits of the case. Having considered the Motions and supporting declarations, 8 as well as the Declarations of Nicole Grigg (Dkt. 631, 632, 637-1, and 655) in support thereof, and 9 the pleadings on file, and good cause appearing, the Motions are hereby GRANTED as follows: 10 11 Dkt. 618: Finjan’s Administrative Motion to File Under Seal 12 Ex. No. Document Portion(s) to Reason(s) for Sealing Seal

13 Finjan Inc.’s Motion for GRANTED as to Portions of this document contain Leave to File Motion for Highlighted portions confidential technical information 14 Reconsideration at i:15, 18; 2:15, 28; and source code related to the 15 3:1, 13-14, 26; 4:18- accused Cisco products. Public 22, 26; 5:23; 6:2, 10, disclosure of this information 16 16, 18; 7:3, 4, 6, 9- would cause harm to Cisco. 14; 8:3, 6, 8-24, 27; Redactions are narrowly tailored. 17 9:12-13, 19, 25; See Grigg Decl. (Dkt. 631) at ¶ 2. 10:13-16, 23; and 18 11:14, 17, 23, 26. 19 Exhibit 1 to the Excerpt from the Expert Entirety This document contains Declaration of Report of Dr. Atul confidential technical information 20 Aamir A. Kazi in Prakash Regarding Non- and source code related to the Support of Finjan Infringement of U.S. accused Cisco products. Public 21 Inc.’s Motion for Patent No. 7,647,633, disclosure of this information Leave to File dated August 14, 2019. would cause harm to Cisco. See 22 Motion for Grigg Decl. (Dkt. 631) at ¶ 2. 23 Reconsideration 24 25 Dkt. 626: Finjan’s Administrative Motion to File Under Seal Portion(s) to 26 Ex. No. Document Seal Reason(s) for Sealing 27 Dkt. 623 Finjan Inc.’s Motion for Highlighted portions Portions of this document contain Reconsideration at i:15, 17-18; 2:18; confidential technical information 4:23-27; 5:3, 28; 6:7, accused Cisco products. Public 1 15, 21, 23; 7:8, 9, 11, disclosure of this information 2 14-19; 8:8, 11, 13, would cause harm to Cisco. 14-28; 9:1, 4, 17, 18, Redactions are narrowly tailored. 3 24; 10:2, 18-21, 28; See Grigg Decl. (Dkt. 632) at ¶ 2. 11:19, 22; and 12:1, 4 4. Exhibit 1 to the Excerpt from the Expert Entirety This document contains 5 Declaration of Report of Dr. Atul confidential technical information 6 Aamir A. Kazi in Prakash Regarding Non- and source code related to the Support of Finjan Infringement of U.S. accused Cisco products. Public 7 Inc.’s Motion for Patent No. 7,647,633, disclosure of this information Reconsideration dated August 14, 2019. would cause harm to Cisco. See 8 Grigg Decl. (Dkt. 632) at ¶ 2. 9 10 Dkt. 637: Cisco’s Administrative Motion to File Under Seal 11 Ex. No. Document Portion(s) to Reason(s) for Sealing Seal

12 Cisco’s Brief in Table of Contents, Portions of this document contain 13 Opposition to Finjan lines 10-11; page 2, confidential technical information Inc.’s Motion for and source code related to the lines 13-15, 21; 14 Reconsideration accused Cisco products. Public page 6, line 20; disclosure of this information 15 page 7, lines 3, would cause harm to Cisco. 10, 12-13, 22; Redactions are narrowly tailored. 16 page 8, lines 12- See Grigg Decl. (Dkt. 637-1) at ¶ 17 13, 24; page 9, 2. 18 lines 2, 5, 16, page 10, lines 19 13, 15, 18-20; 20 page 11, lines 18, 20-22; page 21 12, lines 21-22; 22 page 13, lines 5, 12, 14, 21, 23, 23 27-18; page 14, 24 lines 3, 9, 11, 25 13, 15 Exhibit 1 to the Excerpt from the Expert Entire Document This document contains 26 Grigg Report of Dr. Atul confidential technical information Declaration of in Prakash Regarding Non- and source code related to the 27 Support of Infringement of U.S. accused Cisco products. Public Opposition to dated August 14, 2019. would cause harm to Cisco. See 1 Finjan Inc.’s Grigg Decl. (Dkt. 637-1) at ¶ 2. 2 Motion for Reconsideration 3

4 Dkt. 653: Finjan’s Administrative Motion to File Under Seal 5 E x. No. Document Portion(s) to Seal Reason(s) for Sealing Finjan Inc.’s Reply In Highlighted portions Portions of this document 6 Support Of Its Motion at: 3:4,8; 4:3-28; contain confidential For Reconsideration of 5:21-22; 6:7, 10, 14, technical information and 7 the Court’s Order on 20-21, 24-25; 7:13- source code related to the 8 Cisco’s Motion to Strike 14, 18-21, 25, 28; 8:3, accused Cisco products. Portions of Finjan’s 6-11, 14-15, 21; Public disclosure of this 9 Amended Expert 10:15, 17, 19, 21; information would cause Reports (Dkt. No. 582) 11:4, 7, 12, 14, 16, harm to Cisco. 10 24; and 12:5-6. Redactions are narrowly tailored. See Grigg Decl. 11 (Dkt. 655) at ¶ 2. 12 Exhibit 2 to the Excerpt from the August Entirety This document contains Declaration of 27, 2019, Deposition of confidential technical 13 Aamir A. Kazi Patrick McDaniel information and source in Support of code related to the 14 Finjan Inc.’s accused Cisco products. 15 Reply In Public disclosure of this Support of Its information would cause 16 Motion for harm to Cisco. See Grigg Reconsideration Decl. (Dkt. 655) at ¶ 2. 17 of the Court’s Order on 18 Cisco’s Motion 19 to Strike Portions of 20 Finjan’s Amended 21 Expert Reports (Dkt. No. 582) 22 Exhibit 3 to the Excerpt from the April Entirety This document contains 23 Declaration of 17, 2019, Deposition of confidential technical Aamir A. Kazi Donald Owens information and source 24 in Support of code related to the Finjan Inc.’s accused Cisco products. 25 Reply In Public disclosure of this Support of Its information would cause 26 Motion for harm to Cisco. See Grigg 27 Reconsideration Decl. (Dkt. 655) at ¶ 2. of the Court’s 1 Cisco’s Motion to Strike 2 Portions of Finjan’s 3 Amended Expert Reports 4 (Dkt. No. 582) 5 SO ORDERED. 6 || Dated: June 11, 2020 7 8 Seas vaYul 9 SUSAN VAN KEULEN United States Magistrate Judge 10 ll a 12

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Reference

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