In Bombardier Inc. v. Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., NO. C18-1543JLR, 2019 WL 858777, at *5 (W.D. Wash. February 22, 2019), Bombardier wanted the Court to protect certain categories of documents from disclosure. Bombardier started by identifying its trade secrets, thereafter asking the Federal District Court to match the categories of documents to the trade secrets it had already identified in general terms from the beginning of the case:
[A]t this stage, Bombardier has identified its trade secrets with enough specificity that the court can determine if the disputed documents are related. In its complaint, Bombardier described technical, business, scientific, technical, economic, and engineering information that relate to its design, development, testing, evaluation, certification, and commercialization processes for its aircraft. (See generally Compl.) According to Bombardier, “[t]his whole process—design, certification, production—is the heart of each [aircraft manufacturing] company’s competitive advantage.” (Id. ¶ 33.) Bombardier has cited numerous documents that relate to these processes, which Bombardier alleges certain defendants took while still employed at Bombardier and brought to AeroTEC, MITAC, and MITAC America. (Compl. ¶¶ 60-69.) And Bombardier has described in detail how the information in these allegedly stolen documents could assist AeroTEC, MITAC America, and MITAC in certifying its own aircraft. (Id.) In short, Bombardier has sufficiently described its alleged trade secrets for the court to determine if the disputed documents relate to them and should therefore be filed under seal.
(Emphasis added.) Those who have documents to seal, let them seal, if they can, by following a path like the one that Bombardier has successfully taken in this case.
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