The Upper Deck Company v. Pixels.com, LLC

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of California denies without prejudice The Upper Deck Company’s renewed motion to seal exhibits associated with pretrial disclosures. Applying the good-cause standard for documents tangentially related to the merits, the Court finds that Upper Deck failed to show specific harm from disclosure or provide supporting declarations. The Court permits a renewed motion containing specified information and supporting declarations, or otherwise requires public filing of the documents.

Holdings

1. Because the proposed exhibits were attached to non-dispositive pretrial disclosures and were only tangentially related to the merits, the court applied the good-cause standard rather than the more demanding compelling-reasons standard.
2. A party seeking to seal documents under the good-cause standard must show specific prejudice or harm that would result from disclosure for each document or category of documents.
3. Upper Deck failed to establish good cause for sealing the proposed exhibits and failed to satisfy the court's sealing requirements; the motion to seal was denied without prejudice.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the exhibits attached to Pixels's non-dispositive pretrial disclosures were subject to the good-cause rather than compelling-reasons standard for sealing.
2. Whether Upper Deck demonstrated good cause to seal or redact the proposed exhibits.
3. Whether Upper Deck complied with the court's procedural requirements for motions to seal.

Disposition

other