Wiwynn Corporation v. X CORP.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

WIWYNN CORPORATION, Case No. 24-cv-05322-AGT

Plaintiff,

ORDER ON MOTIONS TO SEAL

v. Re: Dkt. Nos. 15, 26

X CORP.,

Defendant.

In this order, the Court resolves two pending motions to seal, one filed by plaintiff Wiwynn Corp. and the other by defendant X Corp. 1. Wiwynn’s Motion to Seal Wiwynn attached to its amended complaint a copy of the contract it alleges X Corp. breached. Wiwynn seeks to seal the contract and to redact quotations from it in the amended complaint. Sealing and redacting is warranted, Wiwynn says, because the contract prohibits the parties from publicly disclosing confidential information, a term covering the contract itself. See Dkt. 26 at 3 (“Plaintiff is under a contractual obligation to not publicly disclose the contents of the agreement.”). The public has a legitimate interest in “understanding the judicial process.” Kama- kana v. City & Cnty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1179 (9th Cir. 2006) (simplified). This interest will be frustrated if the parties’ contract is sealed and its provisions are redacted. The contract is, in large part, what the case is all about. Without it,…