Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. John Doe subscriber assigned IP address 172.9.236.61
- Edward Chen
- 3:24-cv-06062
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Strike 3 Holdings v. John Doe, Judge Chen granted limited early discovery allowing a subpoena to identify the defendant.
Strike 3 Holdings may seek John Doe’s name and address from AT&T Internet through the authorized subpoena. John Doe may challenge the subpoena or ask to proceed anonymously, and his identifying information may not be publicly disclosed before that request is resolved.
What happened
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC sued John Doe, identified by an Internet Protocol address, alleging that he used BitTorrent to infringe 24 of Strike 3’s motion pictures.
The court allowed Strike 3 to serve AT&T Internet with a subpoena before the usual early case-management conference to obtain Doe’s true name and address. The order did not prevent Doe from challenging the subpoena or filing a motion to dismiss.
Judge Edward M. Chen also restricted how the identifying information could be used and required that it not be publicly disclosed before Doe had an opportunity to seek permission to proceed anonymously. The court granted Strike 3’s application and disposed of the application docket entry.
The detailed version
- Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. John Doe subscriber assigned IP address 172.9.236.61 · No. 3:24-cv-06062
- Edward Chen
- Oct. 28, 2024
Background
Strike 3 Holdings, LLC alleged that John Doe infringed 24 of its motion pictures using the BitTorrent protocol. The defendant was identified in the complaint as the subscriber assigned Internet Protocol address 172.9.236.61. Strike 3 asked for permission to serve a third-party subpoena before the parties’ required Rule 26(f) conference, which is an early case-management conference.
The court reviewed Strike 3’s application and supporting declarations. Those materials addressed Strike 3’s infringement allegations, its review of packet-capture data, the similarity between the allegedly infringing files and Strike 3’s motion pictures, and the tracing of the IP address to a location in Dublin, California.
Ruling
The court granted Strike 3’s application for limited early discovery. It authorized Strike 3 to immediately serve AT&T Inc. (AT&T Internet) with a subpoena under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 seeking Doe’s true name and address. Strike 3 must attach the order to the subpoena, and it may use information disclosed in response only to serve Doe and prosecute the claims asserted in the complaint.
AT&T Internet must serve Doe with the subpoena and the order within 30 days after service on AT&T Internet. Doe then has 30 days after being served to file motions contesting the subpoena. If Doe does not file such a motion within that period, AT&T Internet must provide responsive information to Strike 3 within 10 days.
The court ordered Strike 3 not to publicly disclose Doe’s identifying information until Doe has had an opportunity to ask to proceed anonymously and the court has ruled on that request. Doe has 30 days after service to file that request, which may be filed under seal.
The court stated that allowing early discovery did not prevent Doe from filing a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim and did not prejudge such a motion. The court also reminded Strike 3 of its obligation under Rule 11 to determine whether to continue the lawsuit after obtaining Doe’s name and address, including in light of the Ninth Circuit’s statement that merely alleging that someone is the subscriber for an IP address associated with infringement is insufficient to state a direct or contributory infringement claim. Judge Edward M. Chen ordered that the application’s docket entry was disposed of.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.