Tee Turtle, Llc. v. The Individuals, Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, Partnerships, and Unincorporated Associations Identified On Schedule A of the Complaint

SEALED TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER. Signed by the Honorable Manish S. Shah on 11/6/2024. Notices Mailed.

MINUTE entry before the Honorable Manish S. Shah: Plaintiff's ex parte motion for a TRO, Expedited Discovery, and Service by Alternative Means 9 is granted in part. The court declines to enter an asset restraint or domain name transfer. An accounting can be accomplished through discovery of sales information, and the harm to defendants from an asset restraint and domain name transfer and the corresponding effect on defendants' ability to sell noninfringing products outweighs the harm to plaintiff. Injunctive relief is not an aid to collection of damages. The court has doubts about joinder and personal jurisdiction, but will await adversarial presentation before resolving those issues. The court also has doubts about whether using a trademark in search engine optimization techniques is infringing. See 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. JAND, Inc., No. 22-1634, 2024 WL 4439136 (2d Cir. Oct. 8, 2024). But for now, the court is satisfied that plaintiff has some likelihood of success on the merits of some of plaintiff's theories, and the loss of control over its intellectual property is an irreparable harm. The court notes that if not all defendants are infringing all of plaintiff's asserted works and marks, plaintiff's request is overbroad and risks damages to some defendants in the form of unnecessary expenditure of time and resources. Damages would be recoverable from a wrongful injunction. Security in the amount of $147,000 is necessary to secure the injunction against 147 defendants. Enter Sealed TRO. Notices Mailed.

MINUTE entry before the Honorable Manish S. Shah: The motions to file under seal and for excess pages 8 and 11 are granted. The motion for an ex parte TRO 9 is taken under advisement. Plaintiff must submit a proposed order in Microsoft Word format to proposed_order_shah@ilnd.uscourts.gov. The court advises counsel that, in the future, all motions must be noticed for in-person presentment on Judge Shah's motion call, and the court will advise counsel by docket entry in advance of the hearing (usually by 4:00 p.m. the day before the hearing) if an in-person appearance will be required. In this case, plaintiff's filing includes over 5000 pages of exhibits, and the court can give plaintiff no prediction as to when the court will rule on its motion. Notices Mailed.