Joe Brands LLC v. Edcmaker

Background

Joe Brands LLC, doing business as Wildkin, brought a copyright-infringement action against Edcmaker, doing business as Lukeight, and Bingshuang Lu. The complaint alleged that the defendants copied and used Wildkin’s copyrighted “Olive Kids Trains, Planes and Trucks” pattern on bean-bag products without authorization. It also alleged that Lu obtained a copyright registration for the pattern by falsely claiming it was original and that the defendants submitted counter-notices to Amazon seeking removal of Wildkin’s products.

The defendants did not answer the complaint or otherwise appear. The court first granted injunctive relief, later entered default judgment for Wildkin, ordered permanent injunctive relief, and declared the defendants’ copyright registration invalid. The matter was then referred to Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger for an inquest—an assessment of damages after default judgment.

Magistrate Judge’s Recommendation

The magistrate judge concluded that the defendants were liable for willful copyright infringement. Because the defendants defaulted, the well-pleaded factual allegations concerning liability were treated as true, but Wildkin still had to establish damages with reasonable certainty.

Wildkin sought actual damages, disgorgement of the defendants’ profits, statutory damages, attorney’s fees, costs, and interest. The magistrate judge found no evidentiary basis for actual damages or disgorgement because Wildkin did not submit supporting information. The judge also recommended denying attorney’s fees and costs because Wildkin provided no information about attorney time, billing rates, or costs. Prejudgment interest was also not recommended.

The magistrate judge found that statutory damages were available because the pattern had been registered before the alleged infringement began. The Copyright Act permits statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per infringed work, with a maximum of $150,000 for willful infringement. Considering the defendants’ default, alleged false copyright registration, counter-notices to Amazon, failure to respond to a cease-and-desist letter, deterrence, and the lack of proof that the defendants continued violating the injunction, the recommendation was $50,000 against each defendant. The recommendation stated that Wildkin’s request for $300,000 against each defendant was excessive and exceeded the statutory maximum.

District Court’s Action

Judge Louis L. Stanton stated that he had carefully reviewed Magistrate Judge Lehrburger’s findings and conclusions and agreed that Wildkin should recover $50,000 in statutory damages from the defendants. Because the time for objections had expired and none had been filed, Judge Stanton adopted the Report and Recommendation in all respects.

The court directed the Clerk to enter judgment for Wildkin in the amount of $50,000. The order does not separately state that the judgment amount is $50,000 against each defendant, although the adopted recommendation recommended that amount against each defendant. The final order therefore states a $50,000 judgment amount without resolving that apparent discrepancy.

Disposition

The court adopted the Report and Recommendation in all respects and directed entry of judgment for Wildkin in the amount of $50,000. The underlying case involved default-based copyright liability and a damages award; the opinion did not describe an adversarial trial on the infringement claim.