最近更新：2025-02-20
2024-cv-05943
| 日期 | 描述 |
|---|---|
| 10/01/2024 | MINUTE entry before the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani: Pursuant to Plaintiff's notice of voluntary dismissal 16, this matter is dismissed without prejudice as to all defendants pursuant to Fed. R. Civ.P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i) with each party to bear its own costs and fees. All pending motions, hearings, and deadlines are stricken. Civil case terminated. Mailed notice |
| 10/01/2024 | NOTICE of Voluntary Dismissal by RCPP of All Defendants |
| 09/30/2024 | MINUTE entry before the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani: Plaintiff shall file a status report with an update on the case by 10/9/2024. Mailed notice |
| 08/28/2024 | MINUTE entry before the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani: The Court has reviewed the plaintiff's memorandum on joinder 11 and determines, within its discretion, that plaintiff has failed to satisfy its burden to show that joinder of 316 defendants is proper in this matter under Fed. R. Civ. P. 20(a)(2). See Estee Lauder Cosms. Ltd. v. P'ships & Unincorporated Ass'ns Identified on Schedule A, 334 F.R.D. 182, 185 (N.D. Ill. 2020) (noting that "[plaintiff] bears the burden of demonstrating that joinder is proper"); H-D U.S.A. v. P'ships & Unincorporated Ass'ns Identified on Schedule "A", 2021 WL 780486, at *2 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 1, 2021) ("The Seventh Circuit has recognized the broad discretion that district courts have in remedying misjoinder, so long as the court's decision avoids unnecessary harm to the parties."). The Court observes that plaintiff's memorandum includes a fair amount of conclusory language about a logical relationship among all defendants but not much, if any, facts to actually support that relationship. Beyond alleging that the 316 defendants are infringing upon plaintiff's copyrighted works, plaintiff claims generally that joinder is proper because, inter alia, the defendant share similarities such as potential common ownership, geographic operations, methodology in operation, and channels of securing counterfeit goods. Doc. 11 at 7, 8. As support, plaintiff attaches an exhibit showing a sample of the website listings of the counterfeit copyrighted works offered wholesale on 1688.com, which is wholly owned by Alibaba and is a Chinese domestic wholesale website. Doc. 11-3. From this wholesale listing, plaintiff concludes that she "has linked the counterfeit products to the Chinese wholesale website, 1688.com," which "appears to be the common source of many Defendant's counterfeit goods in China." Id. at 9. As a factual matter, plaintiff's conclusion does not follow from the 1688.com counterfeit wholesale listings. It may be that defendants purchase the counterfeit goods from a source other than 1688.com. And even if defendants purchase the counterfeit products "from the same manufacturers at the same markets in the same location in China," as plaintiff alleges, this reveals little about a relationship between all 316 defendants. Id; Viking Arm AS v. P'ships and Unincorporated Ass'ns Identified on Schedule A, 2024 WL 2953105, at *3 (N.D. Ill. June 6, 2024) (the fact that "defendants likely use the same manufacturer to procure certain parts or the same platforms to sell counterfeit products that are distributed through common shipping facilities. are all coincidentally identical facts that reflect the way these internet webstores tend to operate, not that all defendants are part of a network of infringers.") (internal quotes and citation omitted). Next, plaintiff claims defendants are coordinating aspects of product marketing because many of defendants' listings "show the same images or text in the listing, as well as other common characteristics, across listings and for different sellers." Doc. 11-2, ¶ 7. Plaintiff attaches an exhibit which shows three photos, one image for each product, which are shared by 32 defendants, 15 defendants, and 19 defendants, respectively. At most, plaintiff has identified three small subsets of the 316 defendants who are copycats of each other, "but that does not make them all partners in collusion." Viking Arm AS, 2024 WL 2953105, at *3. Moreover, plaintiff provides no specific examples of such shared text or "other common characteristics" across listings and instead the record contains Exhibit 2 to the Declaration of Rebecca Coster (which includes 1687 pages of screenshots from defendants' listings) without providing the Court with specific additional information from those listings that might in fact support joinder in this matter. See Docs. 7-3 to 7-14. It is not this Court's job to sift through hundreds of pages of materials to look for a relationship between the defendants. Moreover, "defendants with nearly identical product descriptions may in fact share no ties, with each simply copying the same description from elsewhere." Estee Lauder Cosms. Ltd., et al. v. The P'ships, et al., No. 20-cv-00845 (N.D. Ill. June 22, 2020) (Lee, J.) (Doc. 40 at 9); see also Estee Lauder, 334 F.R.D. at 188. Within its discretion, on this record, the Court finds that plaintiff has failed to meet her burden to show that joining all 316 defendants in this single lawsuit is proper here. See Viking Arm AS, 2024 WL 2953105, at *3 (finding misjoinder in case with 181 defendants); Art Ask Agency v. Individuals, Corps., Ltd. Liab. Cos., P'ships & Unincorporated Ass'ns Identified on Schedule "A", 2021 WL 5493226, at *2 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 23, 2021) (same for 216 defendants); H-D U.S.A., 2021 WL 780486, at *3 (same for 198 defendants). Accordingly, plaintiff's motion for temporary restraining order 6 and motion to exceed page limitation 9 are denied without prejudice. Plaintiff's motions for leave to temporarily seal documents [5, 8, 12] are granted. Plaintiff is granted leave to file an amended complaint with a smaller subset of defendants along with a memorandum explaining specifically why each defendant is properly joined to all of the others by 9/11/2024. Mailed notice |
| 08/08/2024 | MINUTE entry before the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani: The joinder issue remains under advisement. Telephone status hearing set for 8/15/2024 is stricken.Mailed notice |
| 07/31/2024 | MOTION by Plaintiff RCPP to seal document sealed document, 11 |
| 07/31/2024 | SEALED DOCUMENT by Plaintiff RCPP Memorandum in Support of Joinder 附件： 1:Declaration Declaration of Plaintiff 2:Declaration Declaration of David Gulbransen 3:Exhibit Exhibit 1 to Declaration of David Gulbransen 4:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Declaration of David Gulbransen 5:Exhibit Exhibit 3 to Declaration of David Gulbransen 6:(Exhibit Exhibit 4 to Declaration of David Gulbransen) |
| 07/18/2024 | MINUTE entry before the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani: Plaintiff's motions for leave to seal and temporarily proceed pseudonymously [5, 8], plaintiff's motion for temporary restraining order 6, and plaintiff's motion to exceed page limitation 9 are entered and continued. Upon review of the complaint and the TRO submissions, the Court sua sponte raises the proprietary of joinder of over 315 defendants in this case. See, e.g., Estee Lauder Cosmetics Ltd. v. Schedule A, 334 F.R.D. 182 (N.D. Ill. 2020). By 8/1/2024, plaintiff shall file a supplemental memorandum addressing the propriety of joinder in light of the principles described in Estee Lauder. In the alternative, plaintiff has leave to file an amended complaint with a smaller subset of defendants along with a memorandum explaining specifically why each defendant is properly joined to all of the others. Estee Lauder, 334 F.R.D. at 189. A telephone status hearing is set for 8/15/2024 at 9:15 a.m. Members of the public and media will be able to call in to listen to this hearing but will be placed on mute. The call-in number is (855) 244-8681 and the access code is 172 628 1276##. Persons granted remote access to proceedings are reminded of the general prohibition against photographing, recording, and rebroadcasting of court proceedings. Mailed notice |
| 07/17/2024 | MOTION by Plaintiff RCPP for leave to file excess pages |
| 07/17/2024 | MOTION by Plaintiff RCPP to seal document sealed document, 7 |
| 07/17/2024 | SEALED DOCUMENT by Plaintiff RCPP Memorandum in Support of Motion for TRO 附件： 1:Declaration Declaration of Plaintiff 2:Exhibit Exhibit 1 3:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (1 of 12) 4:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (2 of 12) 5:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (3 of 12) 6:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (4 of 12) 7:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (5 of 12) 8:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (6 of 12) 9:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (7 of 12) 10:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (8 of 12) 11:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (9 of 12) 12:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (10 of 12) 13:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (11 of 12) 14:Exhibit Exhibit 2 to Plaintiff Declaration (12 of 12) 15:(Declaration Declaration of David Gulbransen) |
| 07/17/2024 | MOTION by Plaintiff RCPP for temporary restraining order |
| 07/15/2024 | CLERK'S NOTICE: Pursuant to Local Rule 73.1(b), a United States Magistrate Judge of this court is available to conduct all proceedings in this civil action. If all parties consent to have the currently assigned United States Magistrate Judge conduct all proceedings in this case, including trial, the entry of final judgment, and all post-trial proceedings, all parties must sign their names on the attached Consent To form. This consent form is eligible for filing only if executed by all parties. The parties can also express their consent to jurisdiction by a magistrate judge in any joint filing, including the Joint Initial Status Report or proposed Case Management Order. |
| 07/15/2024 | CASE ASSIGNED to the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani. Designated as Magistrate Judge the Honorable Keri L. Holleb Hotaling. Case assignment: Random assignment. (Civil Category 3). |
| 07/15/2024 | MOTION by Plaintiff RCPP to seal document sealed document 2 |
| 07/15/2024 | ATTORNEY Appearance for Plaintiff RCPP by David Lee Gulbransen, Jr |
| 07/15/2024 | CIVIL Cover Sheet |
| 07/15/2024 | SEALED DOCUMENT by Plaintiff RCPP Complaint, Ex. 1, and Schedule A 附件： 1:Exhibit Exhibit 1 2:(Appendix Schedule A) |
| 07/15/2024 | COMPLAINT filed by RCPP; Filing fee $ 405, receipt number AILNDC-22243219. |
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