1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

8

9

10 SYNKLOUD TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, 11 Plaintiff, No. C 20-07760 WHA

12 v.

13 ADOBE INC., OMNIBUS ORDER RE SEALING 14 Defendant.

15 16 17 In this patent dispute, defendant Adobe Inc. moves to seal records supporting a variety of 18 motions filed prior to the parties’ settlement of all claims, including the parties’ cross-motions 19 for summary judgment (Dkt. Nos. 104, 109, 115, 116, 126, 127 132, 134). 20 There is a strong public policy in favor of openness in our court system and the public is 21 entitled to know to whom we are providing relief (or not). See Kamakana v. City & Cty. of 22 Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178–80 (9th Cir. 2006). To seal records in connection with a 23 “dispositive” motion, or one “more than tangentially related to the merits of a case,” requires 24 “compelling reasons supported by specific factual findings that outweigh the general history of 25 access and the public policies favoring disclosure”; sealing records connected with non- 26 dispositive motions requires a showing of good cause. See ibid. (quotations and citations 27 omitted); Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1101 (9th Cir. 2016). A 1 competitive standing.” Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., 809 F.3d 1092, 1096-97 (9th Cir. 2 2016) (quotations and citations omitted). “Supporting declarations may not rely on vague 3 boilerplate language or nebulous assertions of potential harm but must explain with 4 particularity why any document or portion thereof remains sealable under the applicable legal 5 standard.” Bronson v. Samsung Elecs. Am., Inc., No. C 18-02300 WHA, 2019 WL 7810811, at 6 *1 (N.D. Cal. May 28, 2019) (citing Civ. L.R. 79-5). 7 The parties have asked the Court to seal myriad documents (many wholesale) that, upon 8 even a cursory review, contain a large number of excerpts from publicly-available documents 9 or information otherwise in the public domain, as well as other, clearly non-sealable, material. 10 What follows is illustrative. 11 First, Adobe seeks to seal the entirety of Synkloud’s amended patent infringement 12 contentions, filed as an exhibit supporting Synkloud’s motion to amend those contentions (Dkt.

13 Nos. 104, 105). But, upon even a brief review of this 3,343 page document, much of the

14 information is explicitly publicly available (Dkt. 104-4 at 24):

15 How much storage do I have? 16 If you have a full Adobe Creative Cloud membership or a single app membership, you = 17 have 100GB storage. If you have a Creative Cloud Photography membership, you have 5 20GB or 1TB storage. If you have a trial product or a free membership, you have 2GB 18 storage. Creative Cloud for teams and Creative Cloud for enterprise memberships include 100GB of storage per seat. 19 https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/file-storage-quota.html 20 21 Here is another screenshot from a public website on downloading photos (id. at 2036): 22 Download a photo 23 Click a photo to view it in the Loupe view and click on the right panel of the screen 94 to download the photo. You can then choose to download Original or Latest version. Original 25 Download the original photo that you uploaded. Only you can download the Original. People viewing your shared photo cannot download Original. 26 Latest version Download the latest edited photo in JPG format. 28 (https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/lightroom-web.html)

1 And here, another image, this time of the (public) user interface for Adobe’s Creative 2 Cloud (id. at 55): 3 meeitet □□□□□□ 4 ie 4 errs iriretert □□ tem

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v 14 And again, from the same document, a screenshot from another publicly available

15 website that reviewed the design of Adobe’s products (id. at 57): A 16 be : □ : = em □□ 2 17 . —— = a an hi) ee = G Pr AB. = ran a re os a a Se

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* Hoelveticn News ru i rsd rf _ 2 $ 0 saseiiii Many Ome Marilyn Ojito 21 on — ; 22 aie witTome 23 Gincly van oe |g 25 : (https://designtaxi.com/news/396473/Adobe-Introduces-New-Adobe-X D-CC-App-For-UX-UI- 26 Enthusiasts/) 27 28

1 And later on, another image showing the option to delete content (id. at 2020): 2 — Beeu=s ~ aaSe* 4 mc 4 - 5 =.

6 mobile 4 Download 8 Upload New Version 9 10 Rename 11 Move 3 12 ar

14 https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/sync-files.html#Manageassets)

15 Second, regarding Synkloud’s briefing for its summary judgment motion, Adobe 16 similarly seeks to seal entire documents despite those documents clearly containing public,

= 17 non-sealable information (Dkt. Nos. 115, 123). This includes screenshots of Adobe’s products

18 readily accessible by the public (Dkt. 115-11 at 29):

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1 Third, considering Synkloud’s reply briefing supporting its summary judgment motion, 2 Adobe again moves to seal despite failing to perform a sufficient review of the material in 3 order to exclude public information (Dkt. Nos. 132, 138). A (brief) examination shows 4 Adobe’s redacts non-sealable public content (e.g., Dkt. 132-5 at 5): 5 ot | =l5) x] ers 6 *On © Off 10 uiitesa 1 1 f i J 12

13 Fourth, for Adobe’s summary judgment briefing, Adobe again requests documents sealed

v 14 in their entirety that contain public information (Dkt. No. 116). In this instance, Adobe moves

15 to seal its own publicly available help pages (Dkt. No. 116-6 at 7): 16 7 Storage connections

18 * Adobe Document Cloud: Store and access files online with 2GE of free storage or get 100GB with an Acrobat DC subscription. * 19 « Adobe Creative Cloud: Store and access files online as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud membership. For more information, see File storage and quota. 20 ttps://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/DC-Language-Tiers.html 21 Overview 22 A Creative Cloud membership includes cloud-based storage, which allows you to access files stored in the cloud from any computer using a web browser. The cloud 23 storage is made up of three different areas: Creative Cloud, Lightroom, and Document Cloud. Stored content can be accessed onlin+-e as follows. 24 e Creative Cloud - https: //assets.adobe.com 25 « Lightroom - https:/ /lightroom.adobe.com * Document Cloud - https: //documentclouc.adobe.com 26 Here are answers to some common questions related to using and managing this storage. 27 ttps://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/file-storage-quota.html 28

1 It is true that other portions of these documents appear to be non-public. But it is 2 impossible to sort that non-public material from the public material. Adobe’s justifications for 3 sealing provide little assistance in this endeavor. Several times Adobe justifies its requests in 4 part on the grounds that the material has consistently been designated confidential per the 5 parties’ protective order (see, e.g., Dkt. Nos. 123 at 2; 131 at 3; 138 at 2). This reasoning 6 contravenes Civil Local Rule 79-5(d)(1)(A). Adobe’s other boilerplate justifications — such 7 as, “it reveals confidential information about how Adobe’s products actually operate” and that 8 the material regards “functionality and internal planning regarding the operation of cloud 9 storage functionality” — do not elaborate further on the grounds for sealing, and thus do not 10 provide any substantive or specific arguments for sealing the material at issue (e.g., Dkt. Nos. 11 131, 134-1). In other words, Adobe provides no information regarding how or why disclosure 12 would be potentially harmful, and, without more, thus fails to justify sealing. Nor do Adobe’s 5 13 justifications provide any assistance to the Court whatsoever in differentiating the possibly 14 sealable information from the clearly public material. 3 15 It cannot be the job of the district court judge to parse the spate of documents filed under 16 seal by the parties — many wholesale — and pick out only the sealable material. This order 3 17 finds that Adobe did not appropriately tailor its requests, which runs counter to the public 18 policies favoring disclosure. Moreover, there is a public interest in knowing how the patent 19 owner has construed its patents in this case in order to promote consistency in future disputes. 20 In sum, for the reasons stated, the Adobe’s sealing motions are DENIED. 21 IT IS SO ORDERED. 22 23 Dated: August 30, 2021 Ls Pee 25 ~

LLIAM ALSUP

26 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 27 28