Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST—NDCal: Redaction of Competitively Sensitive Information Allowed in Student-Athlete Name and Likeness Licensing Litigation, (Oct 19, 2012)
Organizations Mentioned:Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, LLP | NCAA
By William Zale, J.D.
Redactions limited to competitively sensitive details of expert reports and exhibits submitted by antitrust plaintiffs were approved by the federal district court in San Francisco, in an antitrust case against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, its licensing entity, video game maker Electronic Arts (EA), and others, relating to the development of products containing student-athletes’ images, likenesses, or names (NCAA Student-Athlete Name and Likeness Litigation, October 17, 2012, Cousins, N.).
Sources of business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing—such as fee arrangements and terms that could be beneficial to parties that wish to participate in future negotiations—often warrant protection under seal, the court observed, citing Nixon v. Warner Communications, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 598 (1978). The court found that the defendants and nonparties articulated good cause for limited redactions from an expert report offered by plaintiffs (the Noll Report) of information including the following: non-public financial information and negotiated royalty terms; video game royalty data and payments to colleges and universities for the licensing of their trademarks; and confidential revenue data, royalty rates, and guaranteed payment terms.
The court granted the plaintiffs’ request to file in the public record another report (the Gerbrandt Report) containing references to the deposition testimony of NCAA executive Weitekamp. With regard to the NCAA’s proposed redactions of exhibits to protect the competitive standing of the NCAA and nonparties Turner and CBS, the court accepted limited redactions to one exhibit. The court declined to approve, however, redactions to another exhibit that would have placed its entire content under seal. The court ordered the NCAA to resubmit the exhibit with redactions limited to competitively sensitive information.
The case is No. 09-cv-01967 CW (NC).
Shana E. Scarlett (Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP) for Samuel Michael Keller. Juan Carlos Araneda (Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP) for National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Cases: Antitrust CaliforniaNews