PATRICK J. WALSH, Magistrate Judge.
On stipulation of the Parties, the Court enters a Protective Order in this matter as follows:
Disclosure and discovery activity in this action are likely to involve production of confidential, proprietary, or private information for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for any purpose other than prosecuting this matter would be warranted. Accordingly, the parties have stipulated to and petitioned this Court to enter the following Stipulated Protective Order. The parties acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures or responses to discovery and that the protection it affords extends only to the limited information or items that are entitled under the applicable legal principles to treatment as confidential. The parties have agreed that the terms of this Protective Order shall also apply to any future voluntary disclosures of confidential, proprietary, or private information. The parties reserve their rights to object to or withhold any information, including confidential, proprietary, or private information, on any other applicable grounds permitted by law, including third-party rights and relevancy.
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2.2
2.3 "
a) derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means, by other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use;
b) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy; and
c) is otherwise regarded by a party as being confidential, private, or proprietary in nature.
2.4 "Attorneys' Eyes Only": Discovery Material or such portion of such material that the disclosing party has a reasonable belief that the information disclosed, if known to one or more parties in the case would have a reasonable chance of putting the disclosing party to a competitive disadvantage or otherwise result in the disclosure of sensitive proprietary information that could cause future harm. Notwithstanding the terms of this agreement, Plaintiff's attorney is entitled to disclose to Plaintiff the total revenue and gross profit data disclosed in this action, as well as the names of any parties responsible for distributing the infringing product at issue, or any components of said product.
2.5 Receiving Party: a Party that receives Disclosure or Discovery Material from a Producing Party.
2.6 Producing Party: a Party or non-party that produces Disclosure or Discovery Material in this action.
2.7 Designating Party: a Party or non-party that designates information or items that it produces in disclosures or in responses to discovery as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY."
2.8 Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery Material that is designated as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY."
2.9 Expert: a person with specialized knowledge or experience in a matter pertinent to the litigation who has been retained by a Party or its counsel to serve as an expert witness or as a consultant in this action. This definition includes a professional jury or trial consultant retained in connection with this litigation. The expert witness or consultant may not be a past or a current employee of the Party (including any affiliates or related entities) adverse to the Party engaging the expert witness or consultant, or someone who at the time of retention is anticipated to become an employee of the Party (including any affiliates or related entities) adverse to the Party engaging the expert witness or consultant.
2.10
The protections conferred by this Stipulation and Order cover not only Protected Material (as defined above), but also any information copied or extracted therefrom, as well as all copies, excerpts, summaries, or compilations thereof, plus testimony, conversations, or presentations by parties or counsel to or in litigation or in other settings that might reveal Protected Material.
Even after the termination of this action, the confidentiality obligations imposed by this Order shall remain in effect until a Designating Party agrees otherwise in writing or a court order otherwise directs.
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5.2
Designation in conformity with this Order requires:
(a) for information in documentary form (apart from transcripts of depositions or other pretrial or trial proceedings), that the Producing Party affix the legend "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" at the top or bottom of each page that contains protected material.
A Party or non-party that makes originals or copies of documents or materials available for inspection need not designate them for protection until after the inspecting Party has indicated which material it intends to copy. During the inspection and before the designation, all of the material made available for inspection shall be deemed "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY." After the inspecting Party has identified the documents it wants copied and produced, the Producing Party must designate, either in writing or on the record (at a deposition), which documents, or portions thereof, qualify for protection under this Order. Then the Receiving Party must affix the "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" legend at the top of each copied page that contains Protected Material. If only a portion or portions of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Producing Party also must clearly identify the protected portion(s) (e.g., by making appropriate markings in the margins) and must specify, for each portion, the level of protection being asserted (either "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY").
(b) for testimony given in deposition or in other pretrial or trial proceedings, that the Party or non-party offering or sponsoring the testimony identify on the record, before the close of the deposition, hearing, or other proceeding, all protected testimony, and further specify any portions of the testimony that qualify as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY." When it is impractical to identify separately each portion of testimony that is entitled to protection, and when it appears that substantial portions of the testimony may qualify for protection, the Party or non-party that sponsors, offers, or gives the testimony may invoke on the record (before the deposition or proceeding is concluded) a right to have up to 20 days to identify the specific portions of the testimony as to which protection is sought and to specify the level of protection being asserted ("CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY"). Only those portions of the testimony that are appropriately designated for protection within the 20 days shall be covered by the provisions of this Stipulated Protective Order.
Transcript pages containing Protected Material must be separately bound by the court reporter, who must affix to the top of each such page the legend "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY," as instructed by the Party or non-party offering or sponsoring the witness or presenting the testimony.
(c) for information produced in some form other than documentary, and for any other tangible items, that the Producing Party affix in a prominent place on the exterior of the container or containers in which the information or item is stored the legend "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY." If only portions of the information or item warrant protection, the Producing Party, to the extent practicable, shall identify the protected portions, specifying whether they qualify as "CONFIDENTIAL" or as "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY."
5.3 Inadvertent Failures to Designate. If timely corrected, an inadvertent failure to designate qualified information or items as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" does not, standing alone, waive the Designating Party's right to secure protection under this Order for such material. If material is appropriately designated as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" after the material was initially produced, the Receiving Party, on timely notification of the designation, must make reasonable efforts to assure that the material is treated in accordance with the provisions of this Order.
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Until the Court rules on the challenge, all parties shall continue to afford the material in question the level of protection to which it is entitled under the Producing Party's designation.
7.1
Protected Material must be stored and maintained by a Receiving Party at a location and in a secure manner that ensures that access is limited to the persons authorized under this Order.
7.2
(a) the Receiving Party's outside counsel, as well as employees of said outside counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation;
(b) Board members, officers and directors of the Receiving Party;
(c) Other employees of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who are bound by internal confidentiality obligations as part of their employment or who have signed the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" (Exhibit A);
(d) Experts (as defined in this Order) of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" (Exhibit A);
(e) the Court personnel assigned to this litigation;
(f) court reporters, their staffs, and professional vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" (Exhibit A);
(g) during their depositions, witnesses in the action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary and who have signed the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" (Exhibit A). Pages of transcribed deposition testimony or exhibits to depositions that reveal Protected Material must be separately bound by the court reporter and may not be disclosed to anyone except as permitted under this Stipulated Protective Order; and
(h) the author of the document or the original source of the information.
7.3
(a) the Receiving Party's outside counsel, as well as employees of said outside counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation;
(b) Experts (as defined in this Order) of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" (Exhibit A);
(c) the Court personnel assigned to this litigation;
(d) court reporters, their staffs, and professional vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" (Exhibit A); and
(e) the author of the document or the original source of the information.
If a Receiving Party is served with a subpoena or an order issued in other litigation that would compel disclosure of any Discovery Material, the Receiving Party must so notify the Designating Party, in writing immediately and in no event more than five business days after receiving the subpoena or order. Such notification must include a copy of the subpoena or court order. The Receiving Party also must immediately inform in writing the Party who caused the subpoena or order to issue in the other litigation that some or all of the material covered by the subpoena or order is the subject of this Protective Order. In addition, the Receiving Party must deliver a copy of this Stipulated Protective Order promptly to the Party in the other action that caused the subpoena or order to issue.
The purpose of imposing these duties is to alert the interested parties to the existence of this Protective Order and to afford the Designating Party in this case an opportunity to try to protect its confidentiality interests in the court from which the subpoena or order issued.
9.
If a Receiving Party learns that, by inadvertence or otherwise, it has disclosed Protected Material to any person or in any circumstance not authorized under this Stipulated Protective Order, the Receiving Party must immediately (a) notify in writing the Designating Party of the unauthorized disclosures, (b) use its best efforts to retrieve all copies of the Protected Material, (c) inform the person or persons to whom unauthorized disclosures were made of all the terms of this Order, and (d) request such person or persons to execute the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" that is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
Without written permission from the Designating Party, or a court order secured after appropriate notice to all interested persons and after following the procedures provided for in Local Rule 79-5.1, a Party may not file in the public record in this action any Protected Material. In the event that the Court refuses to allow any document to be filed under seal, despite the Receiving Party's compliance with the foregoing, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Local Rules of this Court, the Receiving Party may, nonetheless, file such documents with the Court as part of the public record.
Unless otherwise ordered or agreed to in writing by the Producing Party, within 60 days after the final termination of this action, each Receiving Party must return all Protected Material to the Producing Party or destroy the Protected Material. As used in this subdivision, "all Protected Material" includes all copies, abstracts, compilations, summaries or any other form of reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material. Notwithstanding this provision, counsel are entitled to retain an archival copy of all pleadings, motion papers, transcripts, legal memoranda, correspondence or attorney work product, even if such materials contain Protected Material. Any such archival copies that contain or constitute Protected Material remain subject to this Protective Order as set forth in Section 4 (DURATION), above.
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12.4 Unless the parties stipulate otherwise, evidence of the existence or nonexistence of a designation under this Protective Order shall not be admissible for any purpose during any proceeding on the merits of this action.
12.5 This Order is entered based on the representations and agreements of the parties and for the purpose of facilitating discovery. Nothing herein shall be construed or presented as a judicial determination that any document or material designated Confidential Information or Attorneys' Eyes Only Information by counsel or the parties is entitled to protection under Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or otherwise until such time as the Court may rule on a specific document or issue.
12.6 Nothing in this Order shall affect the right of the Designating Party to disclose the Designating Party's own Confidential information or items to any person or entity. Such disclosure shall not waive any of the protections of this Order.
PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, ________________________________________________ [print full name], of ____________________________________________________ [print full address], declare under penalty of perjury that I have read in its entirety and understand the Stipulated Protective Order that was issued by the United States District Court for the Central District of California in the case of Star Fabrics, Inc. v. Oneworld Imports., Case No. 14-cv-09773-CAS-PJW. I agree to comply with and to be bound by all of the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order and I understand and acknowledge that failure to so comply could expose me to sanctions and punishment in the nature of contempt. I solemnly promise that I will not disclose in any manner any information or item that is subject to this Stipulated Protective Order to any person or entity except in strict compliance with the provisions of this Order.
I further agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Central District of California for the purpose of enforcing the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order, even if such enforcement proceedings occur after termination of this action.
I hereby appoint _____________________________________ [print full name] of __________________________________________________ [print full address and telephone number] as my California agent for service of process in connection with this action or any proceedings related to enforcement of this Stipulated Protective Order.