Federal Circuit Addresses Standard For Filing Under Seal

• Published date: 14 July 2020
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Licensing & Syndication, Patent, Trade Secrets
• Law Firm: Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz
• Author: Mr Clyde Shuman

Article by Clyde Shuman

In a precedential decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit addressed the standard for filing documents with a court under seal. In Uniloc 2017 LLC, et al. v. Apple, Inc., Appeal No. 2019-1922, the Court affirmed in orders of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denying Uniloc's motions to seal its confidential information and that of related entities. However, the Court vacated the district court's orders denying Uniloc's motion to seal the confidential information of Uniloc's licensees and other third parties.

By way of background, Uniloc sued Apple for patent infringement. Apple moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, arguing that Uniloc had granted its creditor a license with the right to sublicense in the event of default. According to Apple, because Uniloc had defaulted on its loan, the creditor had the right to license the asserted patents, including to Apple.

Apple's motion to dismiss referenced material that Uniloc had designated as highly confidential under a protective order, and Uniloc moved to seal this material. Uniloc asked the district court to seal most of the materials in the parties' underlying briefs, including citations to case law and quotations from published opinions. It also asked the court seal twenty-three exhibits'including matters of public record'in their entireties.

Intervenor Electronic Frontier Foundation ("EFF") contacted counsel for Uniloc, asserting that Uniloc's proposed redactions were excessive and saying it would move to intervene if the documents at issue were not re-filed in a manner consistent with the public's right to access. Uniloc refused to revise its requests, and EFF moved to intervene, specifically to oppose Uniloc's sealing motions.

The district court denied Uniloc's motions in full, stating that Uniloc had failed to provide "a compelling reason to justify sealing." Per the court, Uniloc's "generalized assertion of potential competitive harm fail[ed] to outweigh the public's right to learn of the owner-ship of the patents-in-suit'which grant said owner the right to publicly exclude others." Moreover, Uniloc's request to seal covered an "astonishing" amount of material, including, e.g., portions of Apple's motion to dismiss "that simply quote[d] Federal Circuit law." As such, Uniloc's motion "far from narrowly tailored as required by" the relevant local rule.

Moving for reconsideration, Uniloc said it was willing to make...