United States District Court, C.D. California
Hon.
Christine Snyder Hearing Judge.
PROTECTIVE ORDER PURSUANT TO STIPULATION OF THE
PARTIES
Hon.
Jean P. Rosenbluth United States Magistrate Judge.
Having
read the Stipulation of the Parties for Protective Order and
good cause appearing, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED AND DECREED AS
FOLLOWS:
1.
PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS
Disclosure
and discovery activity in this action may 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. The parties have stipulated to the following
Protective Order. 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. As set forth in Section 11.3, below, that this
Stipulated Protective Order does not entitle them to file
confidential information under seal; Civil Local Rules 79-5.1
through 79-5.3 and 79-7 set 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) in that it contains, by
accepted legal standards, confidential research, development,
trade secret, or commercial information, or any other
personal information of any Party or a Party's customer,
provided that the Party or third-party has made efforts to
maintain confidentiality that are reasonable under the
circumstances, whether the CONFIDENTIAL Information is: a
document, electronically stored information
(“ESI”), or other written material or image;
information contained in a document, ESI, or other material;
information revealed during a deposition; information
revealed in an interrogatory, answer, or written responses to
discovery; information revealed during a meet and confer, or
otherwise in connection with formal or informal discovery.
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 have been retained to
represent or advise a party to this action on issues related
to this action.
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,
organizing, storing, or retrieving data in any form or
medium, etc.) 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 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) may 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 other Parties that
it is withdrawing the mistaken designation.
5.2
Manner and Timing of Designations. Except as otherwise
provided in this Order (see, e.g., second paragraph of
section 5.2(a) below), or as otherwise stipulated or ordered,
Disclosure or Discovery Material that qualifies for
protection under this Order ...