Gearsource Holdings, LLC v. Google LLC

District Court, N.D. California·Decided July 8, 2020·No. 4:18-cv-03812·Unknown

Opinion

GEARSOURCE HOLDINGS, LLC, Case No. 18-cv-03812-HSG

Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT, DENYING IN PART AND v. REFERRING IN PART MOTION FOR SANCTIONS, AND GRANTING IN GOOGLE LLC, PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTIONS TO SEAL Defendant. Re: Dkt. Nos. 126, 128, 153, 156

Pending before the Court is Defendant Google LLC’s (“Google”) Motion for Summary Judgment. Dkt. Nos. 153 (“Mot.”), 155 (“Opp.”), and 158 (“Reply”). Google has also filed a motion for discovery sanctions (“Motion for Sanctions”), Dkt. No. 128, and the parties have filed administrative motions to seal portions of their briefs and exhibits related to both the Motion for Summary Judgment and the Motion for Sanctions (“Motions to Seal”). See Dkt. Nos. 126, 156. On May 7, 2020, the Court held a hearing on the various motions. Dkt. No. 161. For the reasons below, the Court GRANTS Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, DENIES IN PART AND REFERS IN PART the Motion for Sanctions, and GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART and the Motions to Seal. BACKGROUND On September 29, 2016, Google rebranded its suite of productivity and collaboration software under the new brand “G SUITE.” See Dkt. No. 153-1, Declaration of Jane van Benten (“JvB Decl.”) Ex. 22 at No. 6. Composed of individual applications known as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, and Hangouts, G SUITE combines email, calendaring, document creation, file sharing, videoconferencing, and chat tools, for which businesses pay a monthly subscription. Id. Ex. 28 (Dep. of Jeremiah Dillon) at 46:3-9, 47:21-23, 58:16-59:14, 62:15-19, 109:17-110:1. It is undisputed that Google has used the G SUITE mark in commerce to identify this suite of software since September 29, 2016. See Dkt. No. 126-26. Previously, on June 9, 2016, Google applied to register the G SUITE mark in Tonga, a foreign jurisdiction. JvB Decl. Ex. 34. On November 28, 2016, Google filed a corresponding trademark application for G SUITE in the United States (Serial No. 87/249,405) (the “‘405 Application”). See id. Ex. 36. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) subsequently entered Google’s claim of foreign priority under Section 44(d) of the Lanham Act, which confers a priority date corresponding to the filing date of the earlier-filed foreign application. See id. Exs. 46, 48; see also 15 U.S.C. § 1126(d). Plaintiff GearSource, founded by owner and CEO Marcel Fairbairn in 2002, is an online service for buying and selling used theater gear. See Dkt No. 1 (“Compl.”) ¶ 9. People or companies with theater gear to sell create a listing, which is then routed to Plaintiff’s system where Plaintiff reviews it, calculates shipping, receives a portion of the proceeds, and then publishes it on GearSource.com to be viewed by potential buyers. See JvB Decl. Ex. 31 (Dep. of Claudette Cyr (“Cyr Depo.”)) at 13:12-24, 15:7-17, 20:1-5, 21:3-24. Plaintiff also facilitates the payment, acting as a retailer and informal escrow account. Id. at 13:23-14:3, 21:25-22:7. Plaintiff initially used NetSuite commercial software. Id. at 25:17-24. In 2016, Mr. Fairbairn decided that Plaintiff should develop its own software to replace NetSuite. Id. at 26:2-7; JvB Decl. Ex. 26 (May 16, 2019 Dep. of Marcel Fairbairn (“Fairbairn Depo.”)) at 145:4-146:9, 359:1-8. On June 30, 2016, Mr. Fairbairn proposed the name “G-SUITE,” and the alternative name “GSiQ,” for the planned NetSuite-replacement. See Dkt No. 139-7 (message from Mr. Fairbairn to Ms. Cyr on June 30, 2016 stating “[l]et’s officially call this ‘G-Suite’ … I like it … I also like GSiQ – I pitched them both on the call this morning.”) (ellipsis in original) (emphasis added). The factual dispute between the parties is when Plaintiff began to display its G-SUITE mark on its downloadable mobile app (the “App”). Plaintiff contends that the App contained and according to Plaintiff, began somewhere around May or June 2016—prior to the June 30, 2016 date on which Mr. Fairbairn proposed the name G-SUITE (and also “pitched” GSiQ as a potential name) for the planned NetSuite-replacement. Opp. at 20. Google contends that the App displayed the G-SUITE mark starting in June of 2018. See JvB Decl. Ex. 29 (Dep. of Tom de Manincor (“de Manincor Depo.”)) at 183:9-13; JvB Decl. Ex. 50 (Expert Report of Dr. David Cummings (“Cummings Report”)) ¶ 104. This is because at least two of Plaintiff’s employees separately circulated screenshots of the App in 2017 that did not reflect the use of the G-SUITE mark, and the underlying metadata of screenshots provided by Plaintiff shows that the App was updated in 2018 to display the G-SUITE mark. Dkt. Nos. 126-25; 139-12; see also Dkt. Nos. 61-5 (Ms. Cyr noting on April 22, 2018 that “This is REALLy [sic] important! By making the App part of G- Suite®, we are covering ourselves completely on the Google lawsuit simply because the app is downloadable.”); 126-12 (message from Cyr to de Manincor on June 1, 2018 asking “how hard is it to change the logos on the app” and noting that “I think we need to – it supports the lawsuit situation and that could be big”). Once updated, Plaintiff uploaded the new version of the App, whose homepage now featured the tagline “Powered by G-Suite,” to Apple’s and Google’s app stores on June 14 and June 15, 2018, respectively. See Cummings Report ¶¶ 67, 104 (G-SUITE added to App code June 14, 2018). The first component of Plaintiff’s G-SUITE—separate and apart from the App—also “officially launched” on April 1, 2017, well after the 2016 date claimed by Plaintiffs with respect to the App. See JvB Decl. Exs. 11, 12. On August 9, 2016, Plaintiff filed a U.S. application for the G-SUITE mark. Dkt. No. 128- 11. After an amendment, the application covered “Computer software for use in creating searchable databases of information and data for use in the buying and selling of lighting, audio and visual equipment, staging, trussing and rigging equipment, musical instruments, for others,” with the software further specified as a good in Class 9, rather than as a service in one of the service classes. See JvB Decl. Exs. 4; 25 (Dep. of Shampa Reddy (“Reddy”)) at 52:5-12, 68:2-17. The basis for Plaintiff’s application was Section 1(b) of the Lanham Act, which allows an registration of a mark only after the applicant commences its use of the mark in commerce for the applied-for goods. See JvB Decl. Ex. 43; 15 U.S.C. § 1051(b)-(d). On September 29, 2016, about six weeks after filing the application, Plaintiff, a user of Google’s productivity apps, received Google’s email announcing its new G SUITE brand. See Dkt. No. 126-26. On March 8, 2017, the PTO issued an initial office action against Google’s ‘405 Application, citing a potential likelihood of confusion with Plaintiff’s applied-for G-SUITE mark. See JvB Decl. Ex. 37. Plaintiff’s application moved through the PTO’s internal review process until June of 2017, when the PTO announced it would be published for opposition. See id. Ex. 44. On June 13, 2017, Plaintiff’s attorney, Shampa Reddy, asked Plaintiff for a sample of use in commerce. See id. Ex. 6; Cyr Depo. at 71:21-72:16; Reddy Depo. at 59:14-18. G-SUITE had not yet been sold or transported to any customer at that time. See de Manincor Depo. at 19:20-22. Ms. Cyr nonetheless asked Plaintiff’s software programmer, Mr. de Manincor, to help her create specimens of use to submit to the PTO. See Dkt. No. 126-13 (“I need you to do something for me ASAP...On G-Suite - the log-in and logged in pages, we need to show the name G-Suite - I have to show ‘specimens of use in Commerce.’”). On June 19, 2017, the G-SUITE mark appeared for the first time on a customer-facing portion of Plaintiff’s website, www.gearsource.com. See Cummings Report ¶ 67 (Table Row 4), ¶ 104. This consisted of a link titled “G-SUITE” in the footer of the

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