RICHARD G. STEARNS, Chief District Judge.
(a) Protected Material designated under the terms of this Protective Order shall be used by a Receiving Party solely for this case, and shall not be used directly or indirectly for any other purpose whatsoever.
(b) The Parties acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures during discovery, or in the course of making initial or supplemental disclosures. Designations under this Order shall be made with care and shall not be made absent a good faith belief that the designated material satisfies the criteria set forth below. If it comes to a Producing Party's attention that designated material does not qualify for protection at all, or does not qualify for the level of protection initially asserted, the Producing Party must promptly notify all other Parties that it is withdrawing or changing the designation.
(a) "Discovery Material" means all items or information, including from any party or non-party, regardless of the medium or manner generated, stored, or maintained (including, among other things, testimony, transcripts, or tangible things) that are produced, disclosed, or generated in connection with discovery or initial disclosures in this case.
(b) "Outside Counsel" means (i) outside counsel who appear on the pleadings as counsel for a Party and (ii) partners, associates, and staff of such counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation.
(c) "Party" means any party to this case, including all of its officers, directors, employees, consultants, and their support staffs.
(d) "Producing Party" means any Party or non-party that discloses or produces any Discovery Material in this case.
(e) "Protected Material" means any Discovery Material that is designated as "CONFIDENTIAL," or "CONFIDENTIAL—ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY," as provided for in this Order. Protected Material shall not include: (i) materials which, at the time of disclosure to a Receiving Party, is lawfully in the public domain; (ii) materials that a Receiving Party can show was received by it, whether before or after the disclosure, from a source who obtained the information lawfully and under no obligation of confidentiality to the Producing Party; (iii) materials that a Receiving Party can show was independently developed by it after the time of disclosure by personnel who have not had access to the Producing Party's Protected Material; and (iv) materials that do not contain or reflect confidential, proprietary, and/or commercially sensitive information.
(f) "Receiving Party" means any Party that receives Discovery Material from a Producing Party.
The computation of any period of time prescribed or allowed by this Order shall be governed by the provisions for computing time set forth in Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 6.
(a) The protections conferred by this Order cover not only Discovery Material governed by this Order as addressed herein, 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 their counsel in court or in other settings that might reveal Protected Material.
(b) Nothing in this Protective Order shall prevent or restrict a Producing Party's own disclosure or use of its own Protected Material for any purpose, and nothing in this Order shall preclude any Producing Party from showing its Protected Material to an individual who prepared the Protected Material.
(c) Nothing in this Order shall be construed to prejudice any Party's right to use any Protected Material in court or in any court filing with the consent of the Producing Party or by order of the Court.
(d) This Order is without prejudice to the right of any Party to seek further or additional protection of any Discovery Material or to modify this Order in any way, including, without limitation, an order that certain matter not be produced at all.
Even after the termination of this case, the confidentiality obligations imposed by this Order shall remain in effect until a Producing Party agrees otherwise in writing or a court order otherwise directs.
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(i) All Protected Material not reduced to documentary, tangible, or physical form or which cannot be conveniently designated as set forth in Paragraph 7(b), shall be designated by informing the Receiving Party of the designation in writing, or by marking the file folder or container for such Protected Material. When documents are produced in electronic form, the Producing Party shall include the confidentiality designation on the medium containing the documents.
(ii) To the extent the Receiving Party subsequently generates copies of this information, or prints documents from such medium, whether electronic or hard-copy, it shall mark such copies with the appropriate confidentiality designations.
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(a) A Producing Party may designate Discovery Material as "CONFIDENTIAL" if it contains or reflects confidential, proprietary, and/or commercially sensitive information.
(b) Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, Discovery Material designated as "CONFIDENTIAL" may be disclosed only to the following:
(i) The Receiving Party, but only for the purposes of this action.
(ii) The Receiving Party's Outside Counsel and any copying or clerical litigation support services working at the direction of such counsel, paralegals, and staff;
(iii) Any outside expert or consultant retained by the Receiving Party to assist in this action, provided that disclosure is only to the extent necessary to perform such work; and provided that such expert or consultant has agreed to be bound by the provisions of the Protective Order by signing a copy of Exhibit A;
(iv) Stenographers and videographers retained to record testimony taken in this action;
(v) The Court, and AAA personnel;
(vi) Graphics, translation, design, and/or trial consulting personnel, having first agreed to be bound by the provisions of the Protective Order by signing a copy of Exhibit A;
(vii) Any neutral who is assigned to hear this matter or is selected by the parties, and his or her staff, subject to their agreement to maintain confidentiality to the same degree as required by this Protective Order; and
(viii) Any other person with the prior written consent of the Producing Party.
(a) A Producing Party may designate Discovery Material as "CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" if it contains or reflects information that is extremely confidential and/or sensitive in nature. This designation will expressly exclude documents filed with any public entity or governmental authority and documents used in connection with the marketing and/or promotion of either Party's products or services and shared with a prospective or current customer or client. The Parties agree that the following information, if non-public, shall be presumed to merit the "CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" designation: non-public pricing information, financial data, sales information, sales or marketing forecasts or plans, business plans, sales or marketing strategy, product development information, engineering documents, testing documents, employee information, license (patent and non-patent) agreements and information, merger and acquisition activities and information, organizational charts, information obtained from a non-party pursuant to a current Non-Disclosure Agreement, and other non-public information of similar competitive and business sensitivity.
(b) Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, Discovery Material designated as "CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" may be disclosed only to:
(i) The Receiving Party's Outside Counsel and any copying or clerical litigation support services working at the direction of such counsel, paralegals, and staff;
(ii) Any outside expert or consultant retained by the Receiving Party to assist in this action, provided that disclosure is only to the extent necessary to perform such work; and provided that: (a) such expert or consultant has agreed to be bound by the provisions of the Protective Order by signing a copy of Exhibit A; (b) such expert or consultant is not a current officer, director, or employee of a Party or of a competitor of a Party, nor anticipated at the time of retention to become an officer, director, or employee of a Party or of a competitor of a Party; (c) no unresolved objections to such disclosure exist after proper notice has been given to all Parties as set forth in Paragraph 10 below;
(iii) Stenographers and videographers retained to record testimony taken in this action;
(iv) The Court;
(v) Graphics, translation, design and/or trial consulting personnel, having first agreed to be bound by the provisions of the Protective Order by signing a copy of Exhibit A;
(vi) Any neutral who is assigned to hear this matter or who the parties select to hear this matter, and his or her staff, subject to their agreement to maintain confidentiality to the same degree as required by this Protective Order; and
(vii) Any other person with the prior written consent of the Producing Party.
(a) Prior to disclosing any Protected Material to any person described in Paragraphs 9(b)(ii) (referenced below as "Person"), the Party seeking to disclose such information shall provide the Producing Party with written notice that includes: (i) the name of the Person; (ii) the present employer and title of the Person; (iii) an identification of all of the Person's past and current employment and consulting relationships undertaken by the Person for the past five (5) years, including direct relationships and relationships through entities owned or controlled by the Person; (iv) an up-to-date curriculum vitae of the Person; (v) a list of the cases in which the Person has testified at deposition or trial within the last five (5) years; and (vi) an executed a copy of the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A hereto).
(b) Within ten (10) days of receipt of the disclosure of the Person, the Producing Party or Parties may object in writing to the Person for good cause and identify with specificity the factual basis for its objection. In the absence of an objection at the end of the ten (10) day period, the Person shall be deemed approved under this Protective Order. There shall be no disclosure of Protected Material to the Person prior to expiration of this ten (10) day period. If the Producing Party objects to disclosure to the Person within such ten (10) day period, the Parties shall meet and confer via telephone or in person within five (5) days following the objection and attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute on an informal basis. If the dispute is not resolved, the Party objecting to the disclosure will have seven (7) days from the date of the meet and confer to seek relief from the Court. If relief is not sought from the Court within that time, the objection shall be deemed withdrawn. If relief is sought, designated materials shall not be disclosed to the Person in question until the Court resolves the objection.
(c) For purposes of this section, "good cause" shall include an objectively reasonable concern that the Person will, advertently or inadvertently, use or disclose Discovery Materials in a way or ways that are inconsistent with the provisions contained in this Order.
(a) If at any time Protected Material is subpoenaed by any court, arbitral, administrative, or legislative body, the Party to whom the subpoena or other request is directed shall immediately give prompt written notice thereof to every Party who has produced such Discovery Material and to its counsel and shall provide each such Party with an opportunity to move for a protective order regarding the production of Protected Materials implicated by the subpoena. The Producing Party shall have reasonable time (which shall be not less than ten (10) days) to object or take other appropriate steps to protect the information. However, nothing in this Order shall be construed as authorizing a party to disobey a lawful subpoena in another action.
12. Disclosure to Necessary Personnel and Outside Vendors. Disclosure of Protected Material may be made to court reporters, independent shorthand reporters, videographers, interpreters, or translators engaged for depositions or proceedings necessary to this case. Further, Protected Material may be made to employees of outside vendors providing copy services, document and exhibit preparation services, and jury consultant and research services, including mock jurors, or other counsel retained by the client or by counsel who have not entered an appearance in the lawsuit in connection with this case.
13. Disclosure During Deposition. Except as otherwise approved by the Designating Party or by an order of this Court, a party may use Protected Material in deposing only: (a) an individual who has had or who is eligible to have access to the Protected Material by virtue of their employment or other relationship with the Designating Party; (b) an individual identified in the Protected Material as an author, addressee, or carbon copy recipient of such information; (c) an individual who although not identified as an author, addressee, or carbon copy recipient of such Protected Material, has, in the ordinary course of business, seen such Protected Material, or (d) an Outside Consultant. No one may attend or review the transcripts or the portions of any depositions at which Protected Material is shown or discussed other than those individuals qualified to see such Protected Material as set forth in this Protective Order.
(a) The production of privileged or work product protected documents, ele3ctronically stored information ("ESI") or information, whether inadvertent or otherwise, is not a waiver of the privilege or protection from discovery in this case or in any other federal or state proceeding. This Order shall be interpreted to provide the maximum protection allowed by Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d). Nothing contained herein is intended to or shall serve to limit a party's right to conduct a review of documents, ESI or information (including metadata) for relevance, responsiveness and/or segregation of privileged and/or protected information before production.
(b) Upon a request from any Producing Party who has inadvertently produced Discovery Material that it believes is privileged and/or protected, each Receiving Party shall immediately return such Protected Material or Discovery Material and all copies to the Producing Party, except for any pages containing privileged markings by the Receiving Party which shall instead be destroyed and certified as such by the Receiving Party to the Producing Party. The Receiving Party shall immediately destroy any notes or other writing or recordings that summarize, reflect, or discuss the content of such privileged or Protected Material. No use shall be made of such documents or information during deposition or at trial, nor shall such documents or information be shown to anyone who has not already been given access to them subsequent to the request that they be returned.
(c) In the case of an inadvertently produced or disclosed document, the Producing Party shall include the Discovery Material in a privilege log identifying such inadvertently produced or disclosed document. The Receiving Party may move the Court for an Order compelling production of any inadvertently produced or disclosed document or information, but the motion shall not assert as a ground for production the fact of the inadvertent production or disclosure, nor shall the motion disclose or otherwise use the content of the inadvertently produced document or information (beyond any information appearing on the above-referenced privilege log) in any way in connection with any such motion.
(d) Nothing herein shall prevent the Receiving Party from preparing a record for its own use containing the date, author, addresses, and topic of the inadvertently produced Discovery Material and provide that information to the Court in any motion to compel production of the Discovery Material.
(a) The inadvertent failure by a Producing Party to designate Discovery Material as Protected Material with one of the designations provided for under this Order shall not waive any such designation provided that the Producing Party notifies all Receiving Parties that such Discovery Material is protected under one of the categories of this Order within fourteen (14) days of the Producing Party learning of the inadvertent failure to designate. The Producing Party shall reproduce the Protected Material with the correct confidentiality designation within seven (7) days upon its notification to the Receiving Parties. Upon receiving the Protected Material with the correct confidentiality designation, the Receiving Parties shall return or securely destroy, at the Producing Party's option, all Discovery Material that was not designated properly.
(b) A Receiving Party shall not be in breach of this Order for any use of such Discovery Material before the Receiving Party receives the Protected Material with the correct confidentiality designation, unless an objectively reasonable person would have realized that the Discovery Material should have been appropriately designated with a confidentiality designation under this Order. Once a Receiving Party has received notification of the correct confidentiality designation for the Protected Material with the correct confidentiality designation, the Receiving Party shall treat such Discovery Material (subject to the exception in Paragraph 15(c) below) at the appropriately designated level pursuant to the terms of this Order.
(c) Notwithstanding the above, a subsequent designation of "CONFIDENTIAL," or "CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" shall apply on a going forward basis and shall not disqualify anyone who reviewed "CONFIDENTIAL," or "CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY materials while the materials were not so marked or otherwise designated.
(a) In the event of a disclosure of any Discovery Material pursuant to this Order to any person or persons not authorized to receive such disclosure under this Protective Order, the Party responsible for having made such disclosure, and each Party with knowledge thereof, shall immediately notify counsel for the Producing Party whose Discovery Material has been disclosed and provide to such counsel all known relevant information concerning the nature and circumstances of the disclosure. The responsible disclosing Party shall also promptly take all reasonable measures to retrieve the improperly disclosed Discovery Material or otherwise seek its destruction including by deletion and to ensure that no further or greater unauthorized disclosure and/or use thereof is made
(b) Unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure does not change the status of Discovery Material or waive the right to hold the disclosed document or information as Protected.
(a) Not later than sixty (60) days after the Final Disposition of this case, each Party shall destroy all Discovery Material from all other Producing Parties. For purposes of this Order, "Final Disposition" occurs after an order, mandate, or dismissal finally terminating the above-captioned action with prejudice, including all appeals.
(b) All Parties that have received any such Discovery Material shall certify in writing to the respective outside counsel of the Producing Party that all such materials have been destroyed. Notwithstanding the provisions for return of Discovery Material, outside counsel may retain one set of pleadings, correspondence and attorney and consultant work product (but not document productions) for archival purposes. Any destruction obligations under this Order shall not apply to electronically-stored information in archival form stored on backup tapes or computer servers, or similar media that are created as a standard business practice for disaster recovery purposes and not used as reference materials in the ordinary course of a Receiving Party's business operations. However, should such information be restored back to a easily accessible or usable form, for example in the case of a back-up tape being restored following a data disaster, a destruction obligation would extend to data covered by this order and such destruction shall occur within sixty (60) days of the data being restored.
(a) Testifying experts shall not be subject to discovery with respect to any draft of his or her report(s) in this case. Draft reports, notes, or outlines for draft reports developed and drafted by the testifying expert and/or his or her staff are also exempt from discovery.
(b) Discovery of materials provided to testifying experts shall be limited to those materials, facts, consulting expert opinions, and other matters actually relied upon by the testifying expert in forming his or her final report, trial, or deposition testimony or any opinion in this case. No discovery can be taken from any non-testifying expert except to the extent that such non-testifying expert has provided information, opinions, or other materials to a testifying expert relied upon by that testifying expert in forming his or her final report(s), trial, and/or deposition testimony or any opinion in this case.
(c) No conversations or communications between counsel and any testifying or consulting expert will be subject to discovery, except communications concerning an expert's compensation, unless the conversations or communications are relied upon by such experts in formulating opinions that are presented in reports or trial or deposition testimony in this case.
(d) Materials, communications, and other information exempt from discovery under the foregoing Paragraphs 18(a)-(c) shall be treated as attorney-work product for the purposes of this litigation and Order.
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Discovery Rules Remain Unchanged. Nothing herein shall alter or change in any way the discovery provisions or the Court's own orders. Identification of any individual pursuant to this Protective Order does not make that individual available for deposition or any other form of discovery.
I, ___________________________, acknowledge and declare that I have received a copy of the Protective Order ("Order") in this matter. Having read and understood the terms of the Order, I agree to be bound by the terms of the Order and consent to the jurisdiction of said Court for the purpose of any proceeding to enforce the terms of the Order.