Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-casd-3_06-cv-01952/USCOURTS-casd-3_06-cv-01952-1/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 890
Nature of Suit: Other Statutory Actions
Cause of Action: 15:0045 Federal Trade Commission Act

---

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION,

Plaintiff,

v.

NEOVI, INC., d/b/a NEOVI DATA

CORPORATION and QCHEX.COM, et al.,

Defendants.

CIVIL NO. 06CV1952 WQH (JMA)

ORDER REGARDING

CONFIDENTIALITY OF

MATERIALS PRODUCED IN

DISCOVERY OR FOR THE

PURPOSES OF SETTLEMENT

This Stipulated Protective Order between counsel for the plaintiff Federal Trade

Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) and defendants Neovi, Inc., G7 Productivity Systems,

Inc., James M. Danforth, and Thomas Villwock (collectively, “Defendants”) concerns the

treatment of electronic and hard-copy documents, tangible things, written reports, answers to

questions or oral testimony, and information produced by the parties pursuant to a Rule 45

Subpoena, during discovery, or for the purposes of settlement in the case entitled Federal Trade

Commission v. Neovi, Inc., et al., Case No. 06-cv-1952 (S.D. Cal.) (“Material Produced in

Discovery or for the Purposes of Settlement”).

IT IS THEREFORE, ON STIPULATION OF THE FTC AND DEFENDANTS,

ORDERED THAT:

Case 3:06-cv-01952-JLS-JMA Document 36 Filed 04/13/07 Page 1 of 7
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Page 2 of 7 06cv1952

1. The parties shall stamp as “CONFIDENTIAL” any page or any portion of any

page of any Material Produced in Discovery or for the Purposes of Settlement that

the party believes in good faith contains: (a) trade secrets; (b) proprietary

commercial or financial information of a privileged or confidential nature,

including, without limitation, tax returns, financial statements, non-public balance

sheets and account information; (c) personal financial information and personal

identifiers, including but not limited to a person’s social security number, home

address, email address, telephone number, bank account or other financial account

number (including any Qchex tracking number), and date of birth; (d) information

that would reveal a confidential, undercover identity used by the FTC and

compromise current and future use of that identity; or (e) any other materials

considered confidential under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)(7), Section 6(f) of the Federal

Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 46(f) or the Court’s ECF Administrative

Policies and Procedures § 1(h) (Sept. 5, 2006). Any page or any portion of any

page so designated shall be treated as “Confidential Material” for purposes of this

Stipulated Protective Order. By designating information as “Confidential

Material,” a party is certifying to the Court within the meaning of Federal Rule of

Civil Procedure 26(g) that there is a good faith basis both in law and fact for the

designation.

2. All material designated “CONFIDENTIAL” produced by a party in this action

shall be disclosed only to the following:

a. To the Court and Court personnel during the course of this litigation;

b. To professional copying, reproduction, data management, data entry, data

processing, or document management companies or contractors of any

party;

c. To employees of the FTC who are involved in the prosecution of this

litigation. Disclosure of Confidential Material to any such person shall be

only for the purposes of the case Federal Trade Commission v. Neovi,

Case 3:06-cv-01952-JLS-JMA Document 36 Filed 04/13/07 Page 2 of 7
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Page 3 of 7 06cv1952

Inc., et al., Case No. 06-CV-1952 (S.D. Cal.) and any related proceedings

and for no other purpose whatsoever;

d. To the defendants, their officers, directors, and employees, and any of

their counsel, including any professionals or paraprofessionals engaged by

such counsel, including their associates, office staff, and litigation support

assistants who are involved in the defense of this litigation. Disclosure of

Confidential Material to any person listed in this subparagraph shall be

only for the purposes of the case Federal Trade Commission v. Neovi,

Inc., et al., Case No. 06cv1952 (S.D. Cal.) and any related proceedings

and for no other purpose whatsoever;

e. To potential witnesses or consultants who are, or may become, actively

involved in this litigation, and their attorneys and staff personnel, provided

that before receiving Confidential Material, they, as a condition to being

furnished Confidential Material, agree to hold all material as confidential

and proprietary. Before receiving any Confidential Material, each person

listed in this subparagraph must read this Protective Order and

acknowledge in writing, executing the agreement included as Appendix A

hereto, that he or she agrees to be bound by the terms of the Order,

provided that in lieu of the signed agreement in Appendix A, the FTC’s

counsel may obtain an executed FTC Form X-033-Nondisclosure

Agreement for Contractors from their outside consultants or experts. 

Disclosure of Confidential Material to any person listed in this

subparagraph shall be only for the purposes of the case Federal Trade

Commission v. Neovi, Inc., et al., Case No. 06cv1952 (S.D. Cal.) and any

related proceedings and for no other purpose whatsoever;

f. To persons who have had, or whom any counsel for any party in good

faith believes to have had, prior access to confidential information, or who

have been participants in a communication that is the subject of the

Case 3:06-cv-01952-JLS-JMA Document 36 Filed 04/13/07 Page 3 of 7
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Page 4 of 7 06cv1952

confidential information and from whom verification of or other

information about that access or participation is sought, solely to the

extent of disclosing such information to which they have or may have had

access or that is the subject of the communication in which they have or

may have participated, except that, unless and until counsel confirms that

any such persons have had access or were participants, only as much of

the information may be disclosed as may be necessary to confirm the

person’s access or participation. 

3. Each person or entity to whom Confidential Material is disclosed shall be

provided with a copy of this Protective Order.

4. The Confidential Material will be protected from disclosure at all times and

confidentiality will only be lifted pursuant to the procedures outlined in Paragraph

11 of this Protective Order.

5. Nothing in this Protective Order shall impose any restrictions on the use or

disclosure by the FTC of Confidential Material as provided by: (1) the FTC’s

Rules of Practice and any cases construing them; (2) Sections 6(f) and 21 of the

Federal Trade Commission Act and any cases so construing them; and (3) any

other legal obligation imposed upon the FTC, provided that, in the event the FTC

receives a subpoena, discovery demand or other request for Confidential Material

produced by defendants in this action, it shall take reasonable steps to protect the

confidentiality of the requested material, including providing defendants’ counsel

with written notice of the subpoena, demand or request at least five (5) business

days prior to the date on which the FTC has been commanded or requested to

disclose the Confidential Material. If defendants’ counsel objects in writing to

the disclosure within the five (5) business day period, the FTC shall not disclose

the Confidential Material pending a judicial determination of whether the

Confidential Material shall be disclosed notwithstanding the provisions of this

Order.

Case 3:06-cv-01952-JLS-JMA Document 36 Filed 04/13/07 Page 4 of 7
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Page 5 of 7 06cv1952

6. Subject to public policy, and further Court order, nothing shall be filed under seal,

and the Court shall not be required to take any action, without separate prior order

by the Judge before whom the hearing or proceedings will take place, after

application by the affected party with appropriate notice to opposing counsel. If

the Court grants a party permission to file an item under seal, a duplicate

disclosing all nonconfidential information, if any, shall be filed and made part of

the public record. The item may be redacted to eliminate Confidential Material

from the document. The document shall be titled to show that it corresponds to

an item filed under seal, e.g., "Redacted Copy of Sealed Declaration of John

Smith in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment." The sealed and redacted

documents shall be filed simultaneously.

7. If any party uses any Confidential Materials during a deposition, it will request

the stenographer or court reporter to separately bind and mark as “Confidential -

Subject to Protective Order” the portion of the deposition transcript during which

the Confidential Discovery Materials are disclosed or discussed. Any such

confidential portion of a deposition transcript shall be deemed Confidential 

Material, subject to the terms of this Protective Order.

8. Within five business days of the date of this Order, any party who previously

produced materials to another party shall designate any such materials as

“CONFIDENTIAL” to the extent such information constitutes protected

information as defined in this Order.

9. All transcripts of depositions taken in this action shall be treated as if designated

“CONFIDENTIAL” for a period of ten business days after a full and complete

copy of the transcript has been available to the deponent or deponent’s counsel.

Any deponent or counsel for that deponent or counsel for a party may designate

during the deposition or during the ten-day period after the transcript is available

from the court reporter any portion of the transcript as “CONFIDENTIAL” by

denominating by page and line, and by designating any exhibits, that are to be

Case 3:06-cv-01952-JLS-JMA Document 36 Filed 04/13/07 Page 5 of 7
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Page 6 of 7 06cv1952

considered “CONFIDENTIAL.” Such designation shall be communicated to all

parties. 

10. Any production of information without its being designated as

“CONFIDENTIAL” shall not thereby be deemed a waiver of any claim of

confidentiality as to such information, and the same may thereafter be designated

“CONFIDENTIAL.” Upon receiving notice from a party or a third party that

confidential information has not been previously denominated, parties shall make

reasonable efforts to re-denominate and appropriately treat all such information. 

Any such subsequent designation, however, shall not apply retroactively to any

previously disclosed information for which disclosure was proper when made. 

11. Any party may at any time request in writing of any other party that any

Confidential Material be released from the requirements of this Order. The

parties shall confer, and if the parties are unable to reach an agreement on the

confidentiality of the material by negotiation, the party seeking protection of the

material as confidential must, within ten (10) days of service of the other party’s

written request to release the material from the requirements of this order, move

the Court to issue a protective order retaining the “Confidential” designation of

the material at issue. If no such motion is made within ten (10) days of the

party’s written request, the material at issue will no longer be treated as

confidential and protected under this Order. In the event any such motion is

made, the moving party must establish that the material at issue is entitled to such

confidential protection pursuant to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil

Procedure. The terms of this Order shall continue to apply to such material until

the Court rules on the motion.

12. At the time that any consultant or other person retained to assist counsel in the

preparation of these actions concludes participation in the action, such person

shall return to counsel all copies of documents or portions thereof designated

confidential that are in the possession of such person, together with notes,

Case 3:06-cv-01952-JLS-JMA Document 36 Filed 04/13/07 Page 6 of 7
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Page 7 of 7 06cv1952

memoranda, or other papers containing confidential information. At the

conclusion of these actions, any subsequent proceedings based thereon, or any

related actions, and upon request of any party, the non-governmental parties shall

return or destroy all documents obtained in these actions that contain or refer to

confidential matters or information, other than trial transcripts and trial exhibits

admitted into evidence (and, if destroyed, shall provide a party with an affidavit

of destruction); provided, however, that privileged documents or attorney work

product need not be returned or destroyed. The FTC shall retain, return, or

destroy documents in accordance with the provisions of Rule 4.12 of the FTC’s

Rules of Practice, 16 C.F.R. § 4.12. The terms of this Stipulated Protective Order

shall continue to apply to all documents retained by any party after the conclusion

of these actions.

13. The FTC and Defendants have the right to apply to the Court to modify this

Stipulated Protective Order, or for such other relief as they deem advisable.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

DATED: April 13, 2007

Jan M. Adler

U.S. Magistrate Judge

Case 3:06-cv-01952-JLS-JMA Document 36 Filed 04/13/07 Page 7 of 7