Fear of God, LLC v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified On Schedule A

MINUTE entry before the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani: The Court has reviewed the plaintiff's memorandum on joinder 20 and determines, within its discretion, that plaintiff has failed to satisfy its burden to show that joinder of 100 defendants is proper in this matter under Fed. R. Civ. P. 20(a)(2). See Estee Lauder Cosms. Ltd. v. Partnerships & Unincorporated Associations 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. Partnerships & Unincorporated Associations 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 100 defendants are infringing upon plaintiff's trademarks, plaintiff claims only generally that joinder is proper because, inter alia, defendants use "nondescript seller aliases," use the "same advertising and marketing strategies to target consumers," have other shared features, such as "check-out methods, keywords, advertising tactics, similarities in price and quantities, the same incorrect grammar and misspellings, and/or the use of the same text and images," and the counterfeit products "bear similar irregularities and indicia of being counterfeit to one another" suggesting that they "were manufactured by and come from a common source." (Doc. 20 at 7-8; Doc. 1, ¶ 27). But plaintiff provides no specific examples of such shared features or similar irregularities and instead the record contains Exhibit 3 to the Declaration of Glenn Milus (which includes 1594 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. 14-16. 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 Partnerships, 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 its burden to show that joinder is proper here. See Art Ask Agency v. Individuals, Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, Partnerships & Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule "A", 2021 WL 5493226, at *2 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 23, 2021) (holding similar conclusory statements do not support joinder); H-D U.S.A., 2021 WL 780486, at *3 (finding joinder improper where plaintiff failed to allege "any nonconclusory facts to form a basis for a conclusion that the defendants' conduct overlaps enough to warrant joinder"). Accordingly, plaintiff's motion for temporary restraining order 11 and motion for electronic service 17 are denied without prejudice. Plaintiff's motion for leave to file under seal 3 is 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 6/27/2024. Mailed notice (lxs, ) (Entered: 06/13/2024)

MEMORANDUM by Fear of God, LLC in support of motion for temporary restraining order 11 (Gaudio, Justin) (Entered: 05/16/2024)

MOTION by Plaintiff Fear of God, LLC for temporary restraining order including a Temporary Injunction, a Temporary Asset Restraint, and Expedited Discovery (Gaudio, Justin) (Entered: 05/16/2024)