Telebrands Corp. v. Adward runbaifan

Background

Telebrands Corp. filed an application seeking emergency relief against Adward runbaifan and the other defendants listed in Schedule A. The application alleged that the defendants offered or sold counterfeit products connected to Telebrands’s Yummy Can Bacon trademarks and copyrighted works. The requested relief included a temporary restraining order, restraints on merchant storefronts and assets, an order requiring the defendants to explain why a preliminary injunction should not issue, alternative service, and expedited discovery.

Court’s Findings

After reviewing the application, declarations, exhibits, and other supporting evidence, the court found that Telebrands was likely to prevail on its trademark claims under the Lanham Act and its copyright claims at trial. The court also found that Telebrands and consumers were likely to suffer immediate and irreparable harm before the defendants could respond. The court identified possible harm to Telebrands’s reputation, goodwill, and sales, and found that the balance of potential harms and the public interest favored temporary relief.

The court found good cause for electronic service under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(3). Although the defendants were believed to be in China, the court found that their physical addresses were not known after Telebrands’s counsel made the investigation described in the supporting declaration. The court therefore concluded that conventional service would be difficult and that electronic service was reasonably calculated to provide notice. The court also found that the defendants might hide or destroy counterfeit products, assets, and business records if they received advance notice, supporting asset restraints and expedited discovery.

Order

Judge Gregory Woods granted Telebrands’s application. The temporary restraining order barred the defendants, pending the hearing and determination of the preliminary-injunction application, from manufacturing, importing, exporting, advertising, marketing, distributing, offering for sale, selling, or otherwise dealing in the alleged counterfeit products. It also barred infringement of the Yummy Can Bacon marks and works, use of confusingly similar marks or artwork, deceptive designations of origin, concealment or disposal of counterfeit products and related records, creation of substitute accounts or storefronts to evade the order, and knowing instructions to others to engage in those activities.

The order restrained the defendants and qualifying persons who received actual notice from transferring, disposing of, withdrawing, encumbering, or paying assets from or to the defendants’ financial accounts. It directed third-party service providers, after receiving the order, to stop providing services to the defendants’ user accounts and merchant storefronts within five days. It directed financial institutions to locate and attach the defendants’ financial accounts within five days and directed financial institutions and service providers to provide specified account, identity, sales, and transaction records.

The defendants were ordered to appear on March 9, 2023, and show why a preliminary injunction should not issue. The court authorized Telebrands to serve the defendants electronically and authorized related electronic service on Amazon.com, Inc., Amazon Pay, PayPal, Payoneer, and PingPong Global Solutions, Inc. Telebrands could serve interrogatories and document requests, with fourteen-day response deadlines for served defendants. The court required Telebrands to post a $10,000 security bond and ordered the complaint, supporting materials, and order to remain sealed until March 9, 2023. The opinion does not state the later outcome of the preliminary-injunction hearing.