Judge Andrews Strikes Unused Exhibits From the Trial Record
June 8, 2016
Publication| Intellectual Property
In EMC Corporation, et al. v. Pure Storage Inc., C.A. No. 13-1985-RGA (D. Del. May 13, 2016), Judge Andrews considered a motion to seal evidence at trial and struck two financial exhibits from the record as improvidently admitted into evidence. The exhibits were large spreadsheets admitted on CD-ROMs and unusable by the jury. Judge Andrews also struck portions of salesforce logs that were not actually used at trial. With respect to the remaining exhibits the plaintiffs sought to redact, Judge Andrews meticulously reviewed each exhibit, its contents, use and/or disclosure at trial, and purpose for submission, finding several contained proprietary and confidential information that had not been disclosed at trial and should be redacted. The Court refused to seal several “obsolete” documents that no longer created a competitive and serious harm to the plaintiffs.
Analysis: This order is in line with Judge Andrews’ view to “not routinely seal court proceedings.” The order suggests that practitioners must be cognizant of requesting confidential treatment at the time of admission into the record, and that parties should limit the exhibits offered into admission at trial to those portions that they actually intend to use and will be of value to the jury.