Sonos, Inc. v. Google LLC

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

SONOS, INC., Plaintiff, No. C 21-07559 WHA

v.

GOOGLE LLC, ORDER RE MOTIONS TO SEAL Defendant.

15 This order addresses pending motions to seal filed in connection with the Sonos’s third amended complaint and Google’s answer (Dkt. Nos. 160, 212–14, 221–22). There is a strong public policy in favor of openness in our court system and the public is entitled to know to whom we are providing relief (or not). See Kamakana v. City & Cty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178–80 (9th Cir. 2006). Consequently, access to motions and their attachments that are “more than tangentially related to the merits of a case” may be sealed only upon a showing of “compelling reasons” for sealing. Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1101–02 (9th Cir. 2016). But a good cause standard applies to the sealing of documents that are unrelated or only tangentially related to the underlying claim. Id. at 1098–99. “For good…