United States District Court, E.D. California
STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER
1.
PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS
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 may 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 from public disclosure and use
extends only to the limited information or items that are
entitled to confidential treatment under the applicable legal
principles. The parties further acknowledge, as set forth in
Section 12.3, below, that this Stipulated Protective Order
does not entitle them to file confidential information under
seal; E.
D.
Local Rule 141 sets forth the procedures that must be
followed and the standards that will be applied when a party
seeks permission from the court to file material under seal.
2.
DEFINITIONS
2.1
Challenging Party: a Party or Non-Party that
challenges the designation of information or items under this
Order.
2.2
“CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items:
information (regardless of how it is generated, stored or
maintained) or tangible things that qualify for protection
under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c).
2.3
Counsel (without qualifier): Outside Counsel of
Record and House Counsel (as well as their support staff).
2.4
Designating Party: a Party or Non-Party that
designates information or items that it produces in
disclosures or in responses to discovery as
“CONFIDENTIAL.” 2.5 Disclosure or Discovery
Material: all items or information, regardless of the
medium or manner in which it is generated, stored, or
maintained (including, among other things, testimony,
transcripts, and tangible things), that are produced or
generated in disclosures or responses to discovery in this
matter.
2.6
Expert: a person with specialized knowledge or
experience in a matter pertinent to the litigation who has
been retained by a Party or its counsel to serve as an expert
witness or as a consultant in this action.
2.7
House Counsel: attorneys who are employees of a
party to this action. House Counsel does not include Outside
Counsel of Record or any other outside counsel.
2.8
Non-Party: any natural person, partnership,
corporation, association, or other legal entity not named as
a Party to this action.
2.9
Outside Counsel of Record: attorneys who are not
employees of a party to this action but are retained to
represent or advise a party to this action and have appeared
in this action on behalf of that party or are affiliated with
a law firm which has appeared on behalf of that party.
2.10
Party: any party to this action, including all of
its officers, directors, employees, consultants, retained
experts, and Outside Counsel of Record (and their support
staffs).
2.11
Producing Party: a Party or Non-Party that produces
Disclosure or Discovery Material in this action.
2.12
Professional Vendors: persons or entities that
provide litigation support services (e.g., photocopying,
videotaping, translating, preparing exhibits or
demonstrations, and organizing, storing, or retrieving data
in any form or medium) and their employees and
subcontractors.
2.13
Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery
Material that is designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.”
2.14 Receiving Party: a Party that receives
Disclosure or Discovery Material from a Producing Party.
3.
SCOPE
The
protections conferred by this Stipulation and Order cover not
only Protected Material (as defined above), but also (1) any
information copied or extracted from Protected Material; (2)
all copies, excerpts, summaries, or compilations of Protected
Material; and (3) any testimony, conversations, or
presentations by Parties or their Counsel that might reveal
Protected Material. However, the protections conferred by
this Stipulation and Order do not cover the following
information: (a) any information that is in the public domain
at the time of disclosure to a Receiving Party or becomes
part of the public domain after its disclosure to a Receiving
Party as a result of publication not involving a violation of
this Order, including becoming part of the public record
through trial or otherwise; and (b) any information known to
the Receiving Party prior to the disclosure or obtained by
the Receiving Party after the disclosure from a source who
obtained the information lawfully and under no obligation of
confidentiality to the Designating Party. Any use of
Protected Material at trial shall be governed by a separate
agreement or order.
4.
DURATION
Even
after 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. 5. DESIGNATING PROTECTED
MATERIAL 5.1 Exercise of Restraint and Care in
Designating Material for Protection. Each Party or
Non-Party that designates information or items for protection
under this Order must take care to limit any such designation
to specific material that qualifies under the appropriate
standards. The Designating Party must designate for
protection only those parts of material, documents, items, or
oral or written communications that qualify - so that other
portions of the material, documents, items, or communications
for which protection is not warranted are not swept
unjustifiably within the ambit of this Order.
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, that Designating Party must promptly
notify all ...