ALKA SAGAR, Magistrate Judge.
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 litigation would be warranted. Accordingly, the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the 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 further acknowledge, as set forth in Section 10, below, that this Stipulated Protective Order creates no entitlement to file confidential information under seal; Local Rule 79-5 sets forth the procedures that must be followed when a party seeks permission from the court to file material under seal.
This action is likely to involve trade secrets, customer and pricing lists and other valuable research, development, commercial, financial, technical, sensitive personal/private information, and/or other proprietary or confidential information for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for any purpose other than prosecution and/or defense of this action is warranted. Such confidential and proprietary materials and information consist of, among other things, confidential business or financial information, information regarding confidential business practices, proprietary technical information regarding specific electronics and technology platforms, or other confidential research, development, or commercial information (including information implicating privacy rights of third parties), sensitive personal/private information, information otherwise generally unavailable to the public, and/or other information which may be privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure under state or federal statutes, court rules, case decisions, or common law. Accordingly, to expedite the flow of information, to facilitate the prompt resolution of disputes over confidentiality of discovery materials, to adequately protect information the parties are entitled to keep confidential, to ensure that the parties are permitted reasonably necessary uses of such material in preparation for and in the conduct of trial, to address the handling of such material at the end of the litigation, and to serve the ends of justice, a protective order for such information is justified in this matter. It is the intent of the parties that information will not be designated as confidential for tactical reasons and that nothing be so designated without a good faith belief that it has been maintained in a confidential, non-public manner, and there is good cause why it should not be part of the public record of this case.
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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 court or in other settings that might reveal Protected Material.
Even after the final disposition of this litigation, 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. Final disposition shall be deemed to be the later of (1) dismissal of all claims and defenses in this Action, with or without prejudice; and (2) final judgment herein after the completion and exhaustion of all appeals, rehearings, remands, trials, or reviews of this Action, including the time limits for filing any motions or applications for extension of time pursuant to applicable law.
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Mass, indiscriminate, or routinized designations are prohibited. Designations that are shown to be clearly unjustified, or that have been made for an improper purpose (e.g., to unnecessarily encumber or retard the case development process, or to impose unnecessary expenses and burdens on other parties), expose the Designating Party to sanctions.
If it comes to a Designating Party's attention that information or items that it designated for protection do not qualify for protection at all, or do not qualify for the level of protection initially asserted, that Designating Party must promptly notify all other parties that it is withdrawing the mistaken designation.
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Designation in conformity with this Order requires:
(a)
(b)
Transcript pages containing Protected Material designated during the deposition, hearing, or other proceeding must be separately bound by the court reporter, who must affix to the top of each such page the appropriate CONFIDENTIAL Legend, as instructed by the Party or non-Party offering or sponsoring the witness or presenting the testimony.
(c)
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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.
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(a) the Receiving Party's Outside Counsel and in-house counsel, as well as employees of said Outside Counsel and in-house counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this Action;
(b) the officers, directors, and employees (including in-house counsel) of the Receiving Party;
(c) Experts (as defined in this Order) of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(d) the Court and its personnel;
(e) court reporters and their staff;
(f) professional vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(g) during their depositions, witnesses, and attorneys for those witnesses, in the Action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary, provided: (1) the deposing party requests that the witness sign the form attached as Exhibit A hereto; and (2) the witnesses and their attorneys will not be permitted to keep any Protected Material after the deposition unless they sign the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A), unless otherwise agreed by the Designating Party or ordered by the court. 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;
(h) the author and recipients of the document or the original source of the information; and
(i) any mediator or settlement officer, and their supporting personnel, mutually agreed upon by any of the parties engaged in settlement discussions.
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(a) the Receiving Party's Outside Counsel and in-house counsel, as well as employees of said Outside Counsel and in-house counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this Action;
(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 "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(c) the Court and its personnel;
(d) court reporters and their staff;
(e) professional vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(f) during their depositions, witnesses, and attorneys for those witnesses, in the Action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary provided: (1) the deposing party requests that the witness sign the form attached as Exhibit A hereto; and (2) the witnesses and their attorneys will not be permitted to keep any Protected Material after the deposition, unless otherwise agreed by the Designating Party or ordered by the court. 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;
(g) the author and recipients of the document or the original source of the information; and
(h) any mediator or settlement officer, and their supporting personnel, mutually agreed upon by any of the parties engaged in settlement discussions.
If a Receiving Party is served with a subpoena or an order issued in other litigation that would compel disclosure of any information or items designated in this action as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY," the Receiving Party must so notify the Designating Party, in writing promptly after receiving the subpoena or order. Such notification must include a copy of the subpoena or court order. The Receiving Party also must promptly inform in writing the Party who caused the subpoena or order to issue in the other litigation that some or all 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. The Designating Party shall bear the burdens and the expenses of seeking protection in that court of its confidential material, and nothing in these provisions shall be construed as authorizing or encouraging a Receiving Party in this action to disobey a lawful directive from another court.
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 promptly (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, a Party may not file in the public record in this action any Protected Material. A Party that seeks to file under seal any Protected Material must comply with Local Rule 79-5.
After the final disposition of this Action, as defined in paragraph 4, within 60 days of a written request by the Designating Party, each Receiving Party must return all Protected Material to the Producing Party or destroy such 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. With permission in writing from the Designating Party, the Receiving Party may destroy some or all of the Protected Material instead of returning it. Whether the Protected Material is returned or destroyed, the Receiving Party must submit a written certification to the Producing Party (and, if not the same person or entity, to the Designating Party) by the sixty day deadline that identifies (by category, where appropriate) all the Protected Material that was returned or destroyed and that affirms that the Receiving Party has not retained any copies, abstracts, compilations, summaries or other forms of reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material.
Notwithstanding this provision, Outside 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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IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD.
* Pursuant to Local Rule 5-4.3.4(a)(2)(i), counsel for Exceptional Innovation, Inc. and Quadriga Americas, LLC, Lori Sambol Brody, certifies that the undersigned counsel have each authorized the placement of his/her electronic signature on, and the filing of, this document.
FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN, 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 Second Street Corporation vs. Exceptional Innovation, Inc., et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-05889-PSG (ASx). I agree to comply with and to be bound by all 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.