DynaStudy, Inc. v. Hous. Indep. Sch. Dist.

325 F. Supp. 3d 767
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedApril 6, 2017
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. H-16-1442
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 325 F. Supp. 3d 767 (DynaStudy, Inc. v. Hous. Indep. Sch. Dist.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
DynaStudy, Inc. v. Hous. Indep. Sch. Dist., 325 F. Supp. 3d 767 (S.D. Tex. 2017).

Opinion

EWING WERLEIN, JR., UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Pending is Defendant Houston Independent School District's Renewed Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) and Motion to Strike Pursuant to Rule 12(f) (Document No. 28).1 After carefully considering the motion, response, reply, and applicable law, the Court concludes as follows.

I. Background

Plaintiff DynaStudy, Inc. ("Plaintiff") is a Texas-based educational publishing company that produces student study aids for a variety of subjects and grade levels based on Texas's state standards.2 Plaintiff sells its study aids to school districts, either in print form or through digital licensing, but prohibits reproduction and distribution of its copyrighted materials.3 Plaintiff has registered numerous copyrights with the United States Copyright Office, including copyrights in its End-of-Course Review Guides ("EOC") for Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and English I.4 Plaintiff also owns the federally-registered trademark "DynaNotes."5

Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Houston Independent School District ("Defendant"), one of its customers, "has participated in an ongoing pattern and practice of infringing [these] intellectual property rights, ... despite the fact that [Plaintiff] has repeatedly placed Defendant on notice of such ongoing and repeated infringement."6 Plaintiff alleges upon information and belief that "Defendant's schools, teachers, and administrators have and continue to unlawfully reproduce, distribute, adapt, and publicly display [Plaintiff's] Copyrighted Works."7 Plaintiff alleges the following specific instances of infringement by Defendant's employees:

*771• Teacher Dennis Huffman at Lanier Middle School "posted a nearly identical copy of [Plaintiff's] Grade 8 Science for STAAR guide online for anyone to download," and when Plaintiff contacted Defendant, Defendant represented that Huffman had received the copyrighted material "from someone by email."8
• Teacher Nicole Diluglio at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts "posted the DynaNotes Biology EOC online for anyone to download."9 The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts had never purchased any copy of the EOC and had no right of access to it, and upon inquiry Defendant represented that Diluglio received the copyrighted material "from a colleague."10
• Teacher Thomas Dohoney at Westside High School "plagiarized a significant portion of DynaStudy's Physics EOC and Chemistry EOC student course notes and then posted these unauthorized derivative works online at Defendant's website for anyone to download," after removing Plaintiff's copyright notices.11 Plaintiff's website was included at the bottom of each page that Dohoney distributed.12
• Teacher Marla Maharaj at DeBakey High School "posted a full version of DynaStudy's Biology EOC student course notes online at Defendant's website."13
• Teacher Amanda Schultz-Weaver at Reagan High School "posted a copy of DynaStudy's Biology EOC student course notes online," from which copy Plaintiff's copyrights and trademarks had been removed.14 Numerous other school districts and organizations infringed on Plaintiff's copyright by posting and reposting this document.15 The document appears to have been created by teacher Michael Partridge at Reagan High School, which never purchased Plaintiff's Biology EOC Student Course.16
• When Plaintiff's sales representative met with administrator Jacqueline Thompson at Yates High School to showcase Plaintiff's course notes, Thompson asked her to leave some examples for teachers to review, assuring her that the materials would not be copied.17 When the representative returned to collect the notes, they had tape over the language at the bottom stating, "COPYING THIS MATERIAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED," and Thompson did not deny that the works had been copied, although she professed to not know who had copied them.18

Plaintiff alleges that despite knowing of Plaintiff's intellectual property rights in its works and receiving repeated notices of ongoing infringement from 2012 to 2016, "Defendant's teachers and administrators *772continued to unlawfully distribute [Plaintiff's] materials amongst themselves" and to make unauthorized paper copies, and "Defendant has failed to take adequate steps to halt all infringement of [Plaintiff's] intellectual property rights."19

In this suit Plaintiff seeks injunctive relief and damages for Defendant's violation of its intellectual property rights.20 Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint alleges claims for: (1) copyright infringement; (2) contributory copyright infringement; (3) vicarious copyright infringement; (4) violation of § 1202(B) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"); and (5) trademark infringement.21

Defendant moves to dismiss Counts 2-5 for failure to state a claim, to dismiss as time-barred the allegations related to Huffman, to dismiss with prejudice the claims alleged in Plaintiff's original Complaint but not realleged in its First Amended Complaint, and to strike certain allegations as immaterial, impertinent, and unduly prejudicial to Defendant.22

II. Motion to Strike

Not as a separate focused motion, but rather as an add-on to several of its Rule 12(b)(6) arguments, Defendant moves under Rule 12(f) to strike Plaintiff's allegations in paragraphs 1, 25-27, 40-45, and the figures on pages 12-15 of Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint.23 Rule 12(f) provides that "[t]he court may strike from a pleading an insufficient defense or any redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter." FED. R. CIV. P. 12(f). Striking a pleading "is a drastic remedy to be resorted to only when required for the purposes of justice" and a motion to strike "should be granted only when the pleading to be stricken has no possible relation to the controversy." Augustus v. Bd. of Pub. Instruction, 306 F.2d 862, 868 (5th Cir. 1962) (quoting Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. v. United States, 201 F.2d 819, 822 (6th Cir. 1953) ); see also Encore Bank, N.A. v. Bank of Am., N.A., 918 F.Supp.2d 633, 642 (S.D. Tex.

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Bluebook (online)
325 F. Supp. 3d 767, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dynastudy-inc-v-hous-indep-sch-dist-txsd-2017.