Anna Melis v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified On Schedule A

MINUTE entry before the Honorable Jeffrey I Cummings: The Court has reviewed plaintiff's recent filings and orders as follows. First, plaintiff's motion for leave to file under seal [21] is granted. Second, plaintiff has presented evidence of completed purchases of the allegedly infringing products to customers in Illinois as to each remaining defendant [20]. See Liu v. Monthly, 170 F.4th 1090 (7th Cir. 2026). Lastly, plaintiff's renewed ex parte motion for TRO, including leave to conduct expedited discovery and electronic service of process [22] is denied without prejudice in light of the Seventh Circuit's opinion in Kangol LLC v. Hangzhou Chuanyue Silk Imp. & Exp. Co., -- F.4th ---, 2026 WL 1502198 (7th Cir. May 29, 2026). In Kangol, the Seventh Circuit held that the Hague Service Convention "prohibits service by email in China." Kangol, 2026 WL 1502198, at 6. The Court acknowledged, however, that the Convention does not apply if the defendant's address is unknown. Id. at 4. "[C]ourts handling Schedule A cases typically require plaintiffs to make 'reasonably diligent efforts to ascertain and verify [the] defendant's mailing address' before deeming the defendant's address unknown." Id., quoting NBA Props., Inc. v. P'ships and Unincorporated Ass'ns Identified in Schedule "A", 549 F. Supp. 3d 790, 796 (N.D.Ill. 2021). Here, plaintiff has not made a proper showing that she has made reasonably diligent efforts to ascertain and verify each defendants' mailing address. Indeed, plaintiff's counsel's declaration in support of such efforts includes only conclusory and generic assertions regarding the defendants listed in the Second Amended Schedule A. (See e.g., Dckt. 15-1 at ("Past investigation and discovery of online marketplace accounts reveals that Defendants appear to have provided false physical address information to the online platforms in order to avoid full liability. For example, many of Defendants' names and physical addresses used to register the Defendant online marketplace accounts are incomplete, contain randomly typed letters, fail to include cities or states, or use privacy services that conceal this information."). These conclusory and "bare assertions regarding the reliability of Defendant[s]' publicly available address[es] are not a substitute for actual diligence." NBA Props., 549 F.Supp.3d at 796. As such, if plaintiff ultimately files a renewed motion for electronic service, she must include the specific, diligent efforts taken to determine the physical address (and the outcome of those efforts) as to each defendant. Any such renewed motion shall be filed no later than 7/22/26. The previously set 5/15/26 tracking status hearing is stricken and reset to 8/21/26 at 9:00 a.m. (to track the case only, no appearance is required). Mailed notice (cc, )