Fareportal, Inc. v. HNA Group (International) Co., LTD.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 FAREPORTAL, INC., Case No. 21-cv-02841-YGR (TSH)

Plaintiff,

DISCOVERY ORDER

v. Re: Dkt. Nos. 92, 100, 103 HNA GROUP (INTERNATIONAL) CO., LTD., et al., 11 Defendants. 12 We have a tricky discovery issue to deal with. Plaintiff Fareportal has sued Defendants HNA Group (International) Co., Ltd., Jason Chen and Nishith Kumar1 for misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition, among other claims. ECF No. 1. The complaint alleges a concerted scheme to steal Fareportal’s trade secrets and then defame the company. Given these allegations, Fareportal is concerned about what might happen to highly confidential materials it produces in discovery. For HNA and Chen, Fareportal proposes the traditional solution, which is to include an “attorneys’ eyes only” level of confidentiality in the proposed protective order. This prevents the alleged bad actors from getting their hands on Fareportal’s most sensitive stuff, while allowing them to fully defend the case…