Impax Laboratories, Inc. v. Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc.

          FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, AND ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO SEAL PURSUANT TO LOCAL RULE 5.3

          HON. CATHY L. WALDOR, U.S.M.J.

         THIS MATTER having been brought before the Court by way of Defendants Zydus Pharmaceutical (USA) Inc. and Cadila Healthcare Limited's (collectively, “Defendants”) Consolidated Motion to Seal portions of the November 2, 2018 teleconference transcript before the Honorable Cathy L. Waldor, U.S.M.J.; and the Court having considered the parties' submissions and proposed sealed information, and the factors contained in Local Civil Rule 5.3. (c)(2); and Plaintiff not objecting to the relief sought herein; and for other and good cause having been show, the Court hereby finds:

         FINDINGS OF FACT

         1. Through discovery in this case, the parties have produced confidential information, the public disclosure of which would affect legitimate business interests. To protect the confidentiality of this information, the parties agreed to maintain the confidentiality of any materials produced pursuant to the Stipulated Discovery Confidentiality Order (“DCO”), entered by the Honorable Cathy L. Waldor, U.S.M.J. on August 16, 2018 (ECF No. 53).

         2. The DCO allows the parties to designate information as “CONFIDENTIAL” or “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL.” The DCO acknowledges that the parties will exchange documents that contain confidential information, and strictly limits access to these documents. The DCO further provides that any party wishing to file with the Court material designated as “CONFIDENTIAL” or “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL” must file an Omnibus Motion to Seal pursuant to Local Rule 5.3(c).

         3. Pursuant to the DCO, Defendants move to seal the Confidential Materials relating to its proprietary commercial and business interests, including information relevant to its research, development, and technical information because they contain, reference, and/or discuss documents and information designated by Defendants as “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL” and/or as “CONFIDENTIAL” in accordance with the DCO.

         4. Defendants seek to protect confidential and proprietary information identified in the Appendix to the Declaration of Theodora McCormick in Support of the Motion to Seal pursuant to Local Civil Rule 5.3 (“Defendants' Confidential Information”);

         Defendants' Confidential Information:

         5. Defendants' Confidential Information, all of which is identified in the Appendix to the Declaration of Theodora McCormick, refers to proprietary commercial and business interests, including information relevant to Defendants' research, development, and technical information on the components and formulation of its ANDA product, which is presently unavailable to the public. The DCO entered in these matters provides for the confidential treatment of this type of proprietary information.

         6. Defendants have a legitimate interest in maintaining the confidentiality of this commercially sensitive business information, including research, development, and technical information related to the components and formulation of its ANDA product. Defendants have a legitimate interest in protecting this information as confidential, because their competitors in the marketplace could utilize the information to gain an unfair competitive advantage to their detriment. Defendants have invested significant resources into the development of its ANDA product with the expectation that documents containing such competitively sensitive and proprietary information would be confidential and remain unavailable to competitors. There is substantial public interest in ensuring that this non-public information relating to Defendants' ANDA product remain confidential and will not become public at a later date.

         7. The clearly defined and serious injury that would result should the proposed Order to seal the Confidential Information not be entered is that valuable business and trade secrets created at substantial expense by Defendants will be lost and competitors would unjustly gain access to them. Confidential research information would be revealed to the public and Defendants' competitors, and these competitors would unjustly gain the ability to thwart, anticipate or usurp those plans and strategies to the competitors' advantage and Defendants' loss.

         8. There is no less restrictive alternative available other than to seal the unredacted materials containing the confidential information identified in the Appendix to the Declaration of Theodora McCormick, and allowing redacted versions of the transcript be filed and made publicly available.

         CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

         9. The Court, having considered this matter pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 78 and Local Civil Rule 5.3, and the submissions in support of the Motion, finds that Defendants have satisfied its burden of proving under Local Civil Rule 5.3(c) and applicable case law, that the information sought to sealed by ...