The Pinkfong Company Inc. v. 7 Day Store
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:22-cv-04133
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 6
In Pinkfong v. 7 Day Store and Pinkfong v. AISEVE, Judge Engelmayer awarded $4.12 million and permanently barred further intellectual-property infringement.
The Pinkfong Company Inc. received a $4,120,000 award, post-judgment interest, and a permanent injunction protecting its intellectual property. The 100 remaining merchant defendants were ordered to pay the specified amounts and were permanently barred from further infringement.
What happened
The Pinkfong Company Inc. sued 100 online-marketplace merchants in two related cases, alleging trademark, copyright, and unfair-competition violations. The defendants did not answer or appear, and the court entered default judgment for Pinkfong before referring damages and an injunction to a magistrate judge.
The magistrate judge recommended awarding Pinkfong $4.12 million, including $100,000 each from Baby Family Store and Luckyhome66 Store and $40,000 from each of the other 98 defendants, plus post-judgment interest. The recommendation also called for a permanent order barring further infringement. No party objected.
Judge Engelmayer adopted the recommendation in full after finding no clear error. He awarded Pinkfong $4.12 million plus post-judgment interest, permanently barred the defendants from further infringing Pinkfong’s intellectual property, and directed the clerk to close the cases.
The detailed version
- The Pinkfong Company Inc. v. 7 Day Store · No. 1:22-cv-04133
- Paul Engelmayer
- Nov. 2, 2023
Background
The Pinkfong Company Inc. filed two complaints against merchants selling products through online marketplaces. One case named 7 Day Store and 52 other merchants associated with Alibaba and AliExpress. The other named AISEVE and 53 other merchants associated with Amazon. The complaints alleged infringement of Pinkfong’s registered and unregistered trademarks, counterfeiting, false designation of origin, passing off, unfair competition, copyright infringement, and New York common-law unfair competition.
The court initially issued temporary restraining orders, which it later converted into preliminary injunctions after the defendants failed to appear at a hearing. Pinkfong voluntarily dismissed its claims against certain defendants, leaving 100 defendants. Those defendants failed to answer or appear, and the clerk entered defaults. On December 20, 2022, the court entered default judgment against all remaining defendants and referred the issues of damages and injunctive relief to Magistrate Judge James L. Cott.
Report and Recommendation
Judge Cott recommended awarding Pinkfong $4,120,000: $100,000 each from Baby Family Store and Luckyhome66 Store, and $40,000 each from the other 98 defendants. He also recommended post-judgment interest and a permanent injunction barring further infringement of Pinkfong’s intellectual property.
The parties were served with the Report and Recommendation and had 14 days to object. No party objected. Because there were no objections, Judge Engelmayer reviewed the report for clear error—an examination for an obvious mistake in the record—rather than reconsidering the issues from the beginning.
Ruling
Judge Engelmayer found no facial error in Judge Cott’s conclusions and adopted the Report and Recommendation without modification. The court awarded Pinkfong $4,120,000, with the specified $100,000 and $40,000 allocations, plus post-judgment interest to be calculated by the clerk. The court also permanently enjoined the defendants from further infringing Pinkfong’s intellectual property and directed the clerk to close the cases. The opinion states that the parties’ failure to object waived appellate review of the report’s recommendations.
Read the full 6-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.