District Court, W.D. Washington, 2022

O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc v. Microsoft Corporation

O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc v. Microsoft Corporation
District Court, W.D. Washington · Decided February 28, 2022
O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc v. Microsoft Corporation

Trial Court Opinion

1 The Honorable Michelle L. Peterson

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE O’DONNELL/SALVATORI, INC., an Illinois NO. 2:20-cv-00882-MLP corporation, STIPULATED MOTION TO SEAL 10 Plaintiff/Counterclaim UNREDACTED BRIEFS AT DKT. 140, 11 Defendant, DKT. 149, AND DKT. 151, AND UNREDACTED EXHIBITS AT DKT.

12 v. 148-05, DKT. 150-01, DKT. 150-02, DKT.

152-03, DKT. 150-08, DKT. 150-09, DKT.

13 MICROSOFT CORPORATION, a Washington 150-14, DKT. 152-05, DKT. 152-09, DKT. corporation, 152-13 Defendant/Counterclaim AND [PROPOSED] ORDER Plaintiff.

NOTE ON MOTION CALENDAR: FEBRUARY 25, 2022 19 Plaintiff O’Donnell/Salvatori, Inc. (“ODS”) and Defendant Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”) respectfully request this Court to seal: 21 1. Excerpts of ODS’s Motion for Summary Judgment filed at Dkt. 140; 22 2. Excerpts of ODS’s Response to Microsoft’s Motion to Exclude Expert Testimony 23 of Cedar Boschan filed at Dkt. 149; STIPULATED MOTION TO SEAL AND [PROPOSED] ORDER - 1 Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC (2:20-cv-00882-MLP) 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600 1 3. Excerpts of ODS’s Response to Microsoft’s Motion for Summary Judgment filed at 2 Dkt. 151; 3 4. Excerpts of Paul Lipson deposition filed at Dkt. 148-05, Dkt. 150-14, and Dkt. 152- 4 09; 5 5. Excerpts of Chris Hull deposition filed at Dkt. 150-01 and Dkt. 152-05; 6 6. Document produced bearing Bates number MSFT_00012998 filed at Dkt. 150-08 7 and Dkt. 152-02; 8 7. Document produced bearing Bates number MSFT_00012847 filed at Dkt. 150-09 9 and Dkt. 152-03; and 10 8. Excerpts of ODS’s Responses to Microsoft’s First Set of Discovery Requests filed 11 at Dkt. 152-13.

12 A motion to seal must include “a specific statement of the applicable legal standard and the reasons for keeping a document under seal, with evidentiary support from declarations where necessary.” LCR 5(g)(3)(B). When documents are “more than tangentially related to the merits of the case,” there must be a compelling reason to seal them. Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1102 (9th Cir. 2016). Here, the “compelling reasons” standard applies because the information sought to be sealed either reflects contractual language from the parties’ agreement already under seal by the Court (#1-#5 and #8) or contains highly confidential communications about Halo music licensing and distributor partners (#6 and #7 above).

21 The parties have carefully tailored this proposed sealing to cover only portions of the above documents that contain this confidential information. Therefore, the parties only request sealing deposition testimony at 70:2-4, 70:15-16, 73:14-25, 77:1-4, 99:8-12, and 99:15-18 in #4; deposition testimony at 81:22 and 82:2 in #5; and quotes of the contractual language in #1- STIPULATED MOTION TO SEAL AND [PROPOSED] ORDER - 2 Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC (2:20-cv-00882-MLP) 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600 #3 and #8. The proposed sealing is the least restrictive means available to protect Microsoft’s rights, while also recognizing the interest in open records. The public has minimal interest in these confidential documents. In contrast, these documents and communications are commercially sensitive to Microsoft. Accordingly, compelling reasons support sealing the unredacted copy of these documents. And these compelling reasons override the public’s minimal interest in disclosure.

7 For these reasons, the parties request the Court to seal the materials identified above and allow ODS to publicly file redacted copies of those materials by no later than seven days after entry of the Court’s order. Aside from the items identified above as #1-#8, the parties do not request sealing and have no objection to the unsealing of any additional documents ODS filed under seal at Dkts. 147-152.

13 DATED this 25th day of February, 2022.

STIPULATED MOTION TO SEAL AND [PROPOSED] ORDER - 3 Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC (2:20-cv-00882-MLP) 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600 1 s/ Mark Lawrence Lorbiecki Mark Lawrence Lorbiecki, WSBA # 16796 2 Daniel A. Brown, WSBA # 22028 WILLIAMS, KASTNER & GIBBS PLLC Union Street, Suite 4100 4 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 Tel: (206) 628-6600 5 Fax: (206) 628-6611 Email: [email protected] 6 [email protected] Attorneys for Plaintiff/Counterclaim 8 Defendant O’Donnell/Salvatori, Inc. 9 s/ Ambika Kumar Ambika Kumar, WSBA #38237 10 Xiang Li, WSBA #52306 Davis Wright Tremaine LLP Fifth Avenue, Suite 3300 12 Seattle, Washington 98104-1610 Telephone: (206) 622-3150 13 Fax: (206) 757-7700 Email: [email protected] [email protected] 15 Attorneys for Defendant Microsoft Corporation STIPULATED MOTION TO SEAL AND [PROPOSED] ORDER - 4 Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC (2:20-cv-00882-MLP) 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600 1 ORDER 2 It is hereby ORDERED that the Stipulated Motion to Seal is GRANTED. The Clerk of the Court is directed to seal or maintain under seal the documents filed at Dkt. 140, Dkt. 149, Dkt. 151, Dkt. 148-05, Dkt. 150-01, Dkt. 150-02, Dkt. 152-03, Dkt. 150-08, Dkt. 150-09, Dkt.

5 150-14, Dkt. 152-05, Dkt. 152-09, Dkt. 152-13. Within seven days of entry of this Order, ODS shall publicly file redacted copies of items #1-#5 and #8 identified in the Stipulated Motion.

9 DATED this 28th day of February, 2022.

A MICHELLE L. PETERSON 12 United States Magistrate Judge STIPULATED MOTION TO SEAL AND [PROPOSED] ORDER - 5 Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC (2:20-cv-00882-MLP) 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.