Kelly Toys Holdings, LLC. v. Alialialill Store
- Jesse Furman
- 1:21-cv-08434
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 10
In Kelly Toys Holdings v. Alialialill Store, Judge Hellerstein entered default judgment, awarding $50,000 per defendant and making prior injunctive relief permanent.
Kelly Toys Holdings, LLC received default judgment, statutory damages, injunctive relief, interest, and costs. The nonresponding defaulting defendants were each ordered to pay $50,000 and were subject to permanent injunctive relief, while eight other defendants were voluntarily dismissed from the case.
What happened
Kelly Toys Holdings, LLC sued Alialialill Store and other defendants, alleging that they marketed and sold counterfeit versions of its Squishmallows dolls. The defendants covered by the judgment did not appear or respond, and the clerk entered defaults against them.
Kelly Toys asked for a final judgment, a permanent injunction, $50,000 in statutory damages against each defaulting defendant, interest, and permission to serve notices restraining assets. No defendant objected to the magistrate judge’s recommended ruling.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein adopted the recommendation and entered default judgment, making the earlier injunction permanent except for its asset-freeze provisions, awarding $50,000 against each defaulting defendant with postjudgment interest, and awarding costs as taxed by the clerk. He also granted Kelly Toys’s request to voluntarily dismiss its claims against eight remaining defendants and closed the case.
The detailed version
- Kelly Toys Holdings, LLC. v. Alialialill Store · No. 1:21-cv-08434
- Jesse Furman
- June 9, 2022
Background
Kelly Toys Holdings, LLC brought claims against defendants under federal trademark and copyright laws, along with related state-law and common-law claims. Kelly Toys alleged that the defendants marketed and sold counterfeit versions of its Squishmallows collectible dolls. The court previously issued a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction, including restrictions on the defendants’ financial and online-service accounts.
The defendants identified in the court’s defaulting-defendants chart did not appear, answer, or otherwise respond to the complaint. The clerk entered default against them. Kelly Toys then moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55 for default judgment, requesting a final judgment, permanent injunctive relief, $50,000 in statutory damages against each defaulting defendant under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(c), postjudgment interest, and relief concerning notices restraining assets.
Magistrate Judge’s Recommendation
The motion was referred to Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger. After the defendants failed to respond, Magistrate Judge Lehrburger recommended entering judgment for Kelly Toys, making the earlier injunctive relief permanent except for the asset-freeze provisions, awarding $50,000 against each defaulting defendant with postjudgment interest, and granting related enforcement relief. No party filed an objection.
Ruling
Because no objections were filed, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein reviewed the recommendation for clear error. Finding none, he adopted it. The court directed the clerk to enter judgment that made the preliminary injunction permanent except for its asset-freeze provisions, awarded statutory damages of $50,000 against each defaulting defendant with postjudgment interest, provided for immediate execution, and awarded costs to Kelly Toys as taxed by the clerk.
The court also granted Kelly Toys’s request to voluntarily dismiss its claims against eight remaining defendants. The clerk was directed to terminate the motion and close the case. Under the classification convention, this is a procedural order because the judgment followed the defendants’ defaults rather than an adversarial decision testing the claims on their merits.
Read the full 10-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.