United States District Court, D. New Jersey
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 ...