JEAN P. ROSENBLUTH, Magistrate Judge.
The Court having considered the parties' Stipulation Regarding Protective Order, and good cause appearing therefore, hereby orders the Stipulation entered, as modified by Judge Rosenbluth.
IT IS SO ORDERED:
Disclosure and discovery activity in this action is likely to involve production of confidential, proprietary, or private information ("Sensitive Information") for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for any purpose other than prosecuting and defending this litigation may be warranted. Accordingly, the parties to the above captioned case, Johnson Matthey Inc., CSI Aliso, Inc. and BP Products North America Inc., and non-party subpoena respondents, Coen Company, Inc. ("Coen") and Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. ("Jacobs"), hereby stipulate to and petition the Court to enter the following Stipulated Protective Order. The signatories hereto acknowledge that this Stipulated Protective 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 signatories further acknowledge, as set forth in Section 13, below, that this Stipulated Protect Order creates no entitlement to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local Rule 79-5.1 sets forth the procedures that must be followed and reflects that standards that will be applied when a party seeks permission from the Court to file material under seal.
The signatories respectfully believe that good cause exists to enter the instant Stipulated Protective Order to protect the Sensitive Information from public disclosure. The Sensitive Information includes information and data that could be used by actual or potential competitors to gain an improper and unlawful competitive advantage in the marketplace. This Stipulated Protective Order is necessary to prevent such harm to the Parties and Non-Parties. The signatories have attempted to draft this Stipulated Protective Order narrowly and in a manner no more restrictive than necessary to protect the Sensitive Information from public disclosure.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
(i)
(j)
(k)
(l)
(m)
(n)
The protections conferred by this Stipulated Protective 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 any Party, Non-Party or counsel to or in court or in other settings that might reveal Protected Material.
Even after final disposition of this litigation, the confidentiality obligations imposed by this Stipulated Protective 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, counter-claims and defenses in this action, with or without prejudice; and (2) final judgment herein after the completion and exhaustion of all appeals, re-hearings, 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.
6.1
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 another Party), may expose the Designating Party to sanctions.
If it comes to a Designating Party's attention that information or items 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 each Receiving Party that it is withdrawing the mistaken designation.
6.2
(a)
(b)
Transcripts containing Protected Material must be affixed by the court reporter with a legend at the top of the transcript stating "CONFIDENTIAL" or "HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY," as instructed by the Designating Party.
(c)
(d)
6.3
7.1
7.2
7.3
The burden of persuasion in any such challenge proceeding shall be on the Designating Party. Until the Court rules on the challenge, the material in question shall be afforded the level of protection to which it is entitled under the Designating Party's designation.
8.1
8.2
8.3
(a) the Receiving Party's Outside Counsel, as well as employees of said Outside Counsel, including stenographic, paralegal, clerical employees, to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation. The consent of the undersigned Outside Counsel to this Stipulated Protective Order shall be deemed binding upon Outside Counsel's stenographic, paralegal, clerical and other employees;
(b) the officers, directors, employees (including In-House Counsel) and, former employees of the Receiving Party to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation, and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as Exhibit A;
(c) Experts (as defined in this Stipulated Protective Order) of the Receiving Party (1) to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation, (2) who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as Exhibit A. and (3) who have been approved pursuant to the procedure of section 8.5;
(d) the Court and its personnel;
(e) court reporters, their staffs, jury consultants, and Professional Vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation, and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
(f) during their depositions, witnesses in this action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as 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
(g) the author or recipient of the document containing the information or a custodian or other person who otherwise possessed or knew the information.
8.4
(a) the Receiving Party's Outside Counsel in this action, as well as employees of said Outside Counsel, including stenographic, paralegal, clerical employees, to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation. The consent of the undersigned Outside Counsel to this Stipulated Protective Order shall be deemed binding upon the Outside Counsel's stenographic, paralegal, clerical and other employees;
(b) the Receiving Party's In-House Counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation;
(c) Experts (as defined in this Stipulated Protective Order) of the Receiving Party (1) to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation, (2) who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as Exhibit A;
(d) the Court and its personnel;
(e) court reporters, their staffs, jury consultants, and Professional Vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation, and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
(f) the author or recipient of a document containing the information or a custodian or other person who otherwise possessed or knew the information; and
(g) during their depositions, witnesses in this action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as 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.
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 "HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY," the Receiving Party must so notify the Designating Party in writing immediately and in no event more than three court 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 Stipulated Protective Order. In additional, 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 Stipulated 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 burden and expense of seeking protection in that court of its confidential materials, and nothing in these provisions should 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 immediately (a) notify in writing the Designating Party of the unauthorized disclosure, (b) use its best efforts to retrieve all copies of the Protected Material, (c) inform the person or persons to whom the unauthorized disclosure was made of all the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order, and (d) request that such person or persons execute the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
The terms of this Protective Order apply to information produced by a Non-Party in this action. Any material designated by a Non-Party as privileged or as Protected Material pursuant to the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order and produced in connection with this litigation is protected by the remedies and relief provided by this Stipulated Protective Order.
Inadvertent disclosure of any document or information protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege, work-product doctrine, or any other applicable privilege during discovery in this matter shall be without prejudice to any claim that such document or information is privileged. Inadvertent disclosure (including production) of information that a Party or Non-Party later claims should not have been disclosed because of privilege, shall not constitute a waiver of, or estoppel as to any claim of attorney-client, attorney work-product or other applicable privilege. If the Producing Party represents in writing that such document or other information was inadvertently disclosed, the Receiving Party shall immediately return to counsel for the Producing Party any all copies of the inadvertently produced privileged material and thereafter refrain from any use whatsoever of the inadvertently produced material, unless such privilege has been waived by some means other than the inadvertent disclosure. This Stipulated Protective Order is intended to provide the full protection afforded by Federal Rule of Evidence 502. Nothing herein shall prevent the Receiving Party from contending that any applicable privilege does not apply or was waived for reasons other than the inadvertent disclosure of the material, and the Receiving Party can file a Motion with the Court challenging the assertion of privilege.
Without written permission from the Designating Party or a court order secured after appropriate notice to all interested persons, a Party or Non-Party may not file in the public record in this action any Protected Material. A Party or Non-Party that seeks to file any Protected Material under seal must comply with Civil Local Rule 79-5.
Within 60 days after the final disposition of this action, as defined in Section 5, each Receiving Party must return all Discovery Material and all Protected Material to the Producing Party or with written permission from the Producing Party, the Receiving Party may destroy some or all of the Discovery Material and Protected Material in lieu of returning it. As used in this paragraph, "all Protected Material" includes all copies, abstracts, compilations, summaries, or any other form of reproducing or capturing any Protected Material. Whether the Protected Material is returned or destroyed, the Receiving Party must submit a written declaration to the Producing Party (and, if not the same person or entity, the Designating Party) by the sixty (60) 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 any other forms of reproducing or capturing any 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 Discovery Material or Protected Material. Any such archival copies that contain or constitute Protected Material remain subject to this Stipulated Protective Order as set forth in Section 5 (DURATION).
15.1
15.2
15.3
15.4
I, __________________ [print or type full name], of _______________________ [print or type 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 on ___________ in the case of JOHNSON MATHEY, INC. AND CSI ALISO, INC. V. BP PRODUCTS NORTH AMERICA INC., Case No.: SACV 12-01035-JVS (JPR). 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 Stipulated Protective Order. I further agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court of the Central District of California for the purpose of enforcing the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order, even if such enforcement proceedings occur after the termination of this action.
I hereby appoint ____________ [print or type full name] of _____________________________ [print or type 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.