TELEBRANDS CORP. v. AM DEVOTEE STORE
- Alvin Hellerstein
- 1:20-cv-09775
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 7
In Telebrands v. AM Devotee Store, Judge Hellerstein entered default judgment, awarded $25,000 per defendant, and permanently barred counterfeit-product activities.
Telebrands Corp. received a default judgment, statutory damages, post-judgment interest, and injunctive relief. The 33 defaulting defendants listed in Schedule A are subject to the damages award, permanent restrictions, destruction order, and contempt consequences for noncompliance.
What happened
In Telebrands Corp. v. AM Devotee Store, Telebrands asked the court to enter final judgment against 33 defendants that had not answered its claims concerning the “EGG SITTER” trademark and related copyrighted materials.
The court found the defendants liable for the properly pleaded claims, including trademark infringement and counterfeiting, copyright infringement, false designation of origin, passing off, and unfair competition. It awarded Telebrands $25,000 in statutory damages against each of the 33 defendants, plus post-judgment interest.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein permanently prohibited the defendants and people acting with them from dealing in the counterfeit products or infringing materials, ordered them to deliver those materials for destruction, dissolved the automatic enforcement stay, and retained jurisdiction to enforce the order.
The detailed version
- TELEBRANDS CORP. v. AM DEVOTEE STORE · No. 1:20-cv-09775
- Alvin Hellerstein
- Mar. 29, 2023
Background
Telebrands Corp. moved for final default judgment and a permanent injunction against the 33 defaulting defendants listed in Schedule A. The claims arose from the defendants’ alleged unauthorized use of Telebrands’ “EGG SITTER” trademark and copyrighted materials, including a commercial, instruction manual, packaging, and website. The opinion states that a default admits the complaint’s well-pleaded factual allegations for purposes of liability.
Ruling on Liability
The court granted judgment in favor of Telebrands on all claims properly pleaded against the Schedule A defendants. The court found the defendants liable for trademark infringement, trademark counterfeiting, copyright infringement, false designation of origin, passing off, unfair competition, and related state and common-law claims.
Damages
The court awarded statutory damages of $25,000 against each of the 33 defaulting defendants under the Lanham Act and/or the Copyright Act. The award also included post-judgment interest at the statutory rate.
Permanent Injunction
The court permanently prohibited the defaulting defendants, their officers, agents, employees, and people acting with them who received actual notice of the order from manufacturing, importing, exporting, advertising, marketing, promoting, distributing, displaying, offering for sale, selling, or otherwise dealing in counterfeit products or products and materials infringing Telebrands’ “EGG SITTER” trademark or copyrighted works. The order also barred conduct intended to evade these restrictions, such as creating new entities, accounts, storefronts, or other sales platforms.
The defendants were ordered to deliver for destruction all counterfeit products and related infringing packaging, labels, tags, advertising, promotional materials, and other materials in their possession, custody, or control.
Other Relief
Judge Hellerstein dissolved the 30-day automatic stay on enforcing the judgment. The order states that noncompliance could be treated as contempt of court and could result in remedies including fines and seizure of property. The court released Telebrands’ $5,000 security bond to its counsel and retained jurisdiction over the matter and the parties to interpret and enforce the order.
Read the full 7-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.