Pearson Education, Inc. v. Doe 1

Background

Pearson Education Inc. and other textbook publishers sued online merchants for allegedly selling counterfeit textbooks that infringed the publishers’ copyrights and counterfeited their trademarks. The defendants operated online storefronts, including storefronts hosted on Amazon. The publishers initially identified some defendants only by their storefront names and obtained expedited discovery to identify their names, addresses, email addresses, Internet Protocol addresses, and seller identification numbers.

Amazon provided information that included email addresses used by the Bizarre Crafts Defendants to operate their storefronts. The publishers sent those defendants copies of the amended complaint, summons, and a service-waiver form by mail and email, but received no response. The motion addressed service on Bizarre Crafts, Pradeep Kumar Sahni, Diwakar Kumar, Abhishek Kumar Singh, and Irshad Ahmed. The motion also requested service by email on Gilson Jose Goncalves Filho, but that request became moot after the publishers filed his executed waiver of service.

Legal standard

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(3) allows a court to authorize a method of serving a defendant in a foreign country that is not prohibited by an international agreement. The court said that a plaintiff need not first exhaust the service methods listed in Rule 4(f)(1) or Rule 4(f)(2). The proposed method must satisfy constitutional due process, meaning it must be reasonably likely under the circumstances to inform the affected parties about the lawsuit and give them an opportunity to respond.

The court noted that the United States and India are parties to the Hague Convention on Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, and that India had objected to service by postal channels under Article 10. The court followed decisions holding that this objection does not cover service by email. It also relied on decisions finding that email service can satisfy due process when the email address is likely to reach the defendant.

Court’s analysis

The court found that Amazon had provided email addresses used by the Bizarre Crafts Defendants for their online storefronts. Because the defendants operated online businesses and used those addresses to communicate through their storefronts, the court found that email service was reasonably calculated to reach them and provide notice. The court also found that the requested five-day period for completing service was reasonable. The court noted that the usual 90-day service limit does not apply to service in a foreign country, although the time allowed for foreign service is not unlimited.

Disposition

The court granted the publishers’ motion to authorize alternative service. It ordered the publishers to serve the Bizarre Crafts Defendants by email using every email address known to the publishers, with service to be completed within five days of the order. The request to serve Gilson Jose Goncalves Filho by email was denied as moot. The Clerk was directed to close the motion docket entry.