GS Holistic LLC v. Thana LLC

District Court, W.D. Washington·Decided July 1, 2024·No. 2:23-cv-00376·Unknown

Opinion

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE

9 10 GS HOLISTIC, LLC, CASE NO. C23-0376JLR 11 Plaintiff, ORDER v. 12 THANA LLC, et al., 13 Defendants. 14

15 I. INTRODUCTION 16 Before the court is Plaintiff GS Holistic, LLC’s (“GS Holistic”) renewed motion 17 for entry of default judgment against Defendants Thana LLC d/b/a Smoke Depot 2 18 (“Thana LLC”), Thana Marwan, Ali Abu-Alia, and Abdulla Abu-Alia (together, 19 “Defendants”). (Mot. (Dkt. # 24).) None of the Defendants have appeared in this action, 20 and the Clerk has entered default against all Defendants. (8/23/23 Default (Dkt. # 12) 21 (entering default against Thana LLC and Thana Marwan); 10/19/23 Default (Dkt. # 14 22 (entering default against Ali Abu-Alia and Abdulla Abu-Alia).) The court has considered 1 GS Holistic’s motion, the materials it submitted in support of its motion, the relevant 2 portions of the record, and the governing law. Being fully advised, the court GRANTS in

3 part GS Holistic’s motion for entry of default judgment. 4 II. BACKGROUND 5 GS Holistic is a Delaware limited liability corporation (“LLC”) that has its 6 principal place of business in California. (Compl. (Dkt. # 1) ¶ 4. It alleges that it is the 7 owner of the “STÜNDENGLASS” trademark and that it has worked to distinguish the 8 Stündenglass brand as “the premier manufacturer of glass infusers” trademarks and has

9 spent significant amounts of time and resources promoting and protecting the trademark. 10 (Id. ¶¶ 10-11, 16.) GS Holistic has registered the following trademarks: (1) U.S. 11 Trademark Registration No. 6,633,884 “for the standard character mark “Stündenglass” 12 in association with goods further identified in registration in international class 011”; 13 (2) U.S. Trademark Registration No. 6,174,292 “for the design plus words mark ‘S’ and

14 its logo in association with goods further identified in the registration in international 15 class 034”; and (3) U.S. Trademark Registration No. 6,174,291 “for the standard 16 character mark “Stündenglass” in association with goods further identified in registration 17 in international class 034” (together, the “Stündenglass trademarks”). (Id. ¶ 12; see also 18 Mot., Ex. A (screenshots of pages from the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s

19 Trademark Electronic Search System).) GS Holistic asserts that consumers are willing to 20 pay more for “the recognized quality and innovation associated with the Stündenglass 21 Marks.” (Compl. ¶ 22.) Thus, genuine Stündenglass glass infusers are priced at $599.95, 22 while non-Stündenglass infusers sell for between $199.00 and $600.00. (Id.) 1 Defendant Thana LLC is a Washington LLC that has its principal place of 2 business in Washington. (Id. ¶ 5.) Its owners are Thana Marwan, Ali Abu-Alia, and

3 Abdulla Abu-Alia, who are residents and citizens of Washington. (Id. at 1; id. ¶¶ 6-8.) 4 GS Holistic asserts that Defendants sold counterfeit products bearing the “Stündenglass” 5 Marks. (Id. ¶¶ 26-29.) On January 31, 2023, according to GS Holistic, its investigator 6 visited Smoke Depot 2; observed that the shop had “an excess” of glass infusers that 7 displayed the Stündenglass Marks; purchased a glass infuser with a Stündenglass Mark 8 “affixed to it” for $442.44; and determined the glass infuser was a counterfeit product

9 that displayed the “the Infringing Marks” for $442.44. (Id. ¶ 31; see also id. ¶ 27 10 (defining the “Infringing Marks” as “reproductions, counterfeits, copies, and/or colorable 11 imitations of one or more of the Stündenglass Marks”).) 12 GS Holistic filed its complaint on March 14, 2023. (Id. at 1.) It alleges claims 13 under the Lanham Act against all Defendants for counterfeiting and trademark

14 infringement in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1114 and for false designation of origin and 15 unfair competition in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a). (Id. ¶¶ 53-70.) It seeks damages, 16 costs of suit, a permanent injunction prohibiting Defendants from continuing to infringe 17 the Stündenglass trademarks, and an order requiring Defendants to deliver all infringing 18 products to GS Holistic for destruction. (Id. at 12-14.)

19 GS Holistic served Defendants on April 9, 2023. (See Service Affs. (Dkt. 20 ## 7-10.) The Clerk entered default against Thana LLC and Thana Marwan on August 21 23, 2023, and against Ali Abu-Alia and Abdulla Abu-Alia on October 19, 2023. (8/23/23 22 Default; 10/19/2023 Default.) GS Holistic filed its first motion for entry of default 1 judgment on October 25, 2023. (1st Mot. (Dkt. # 16).) On November 3, 2023, the court 2 denied that motion without prejudice because GS Holistic did not discuss how the court

3 should dispose of its claims against Ali Abu-Alia and Abdulla Abu-Alia. (11/3/23 Order 4 (Dkt. # 20).) When GS Holistic failed to take any further action in this matter, the court 5 ordered it to show cause why this matter should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute. 6 (OSC (Dkt. # 21).) GS Holistic timely responded to the OSC and filed this renewed 7 motion for default judgment. (Mot.) 8 III. ANALYSIS

9 Below, the court sets forth the relevant legal standard and then evaluates GS 10 Holistic’s motion for entry of default judgment. 11 A. Legal Standard 12 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55(b)(2) authorizes the court to enter default 13 judgment against a defaulting defendant upon the plaintiff’s motion. Fed. R. Civ. P.

14 55(a), (b)(2). After default is entered, well-pleaded factual allegations in the complaint, 15 except those related to damages, are considered admitted and are sufficient to establish a 16 defendant’s liability. TeleVideo Sys., Inc. v. Heidenthal, 826 F.2d 915, 917-18 (9th Cir. 17 1987) (citing Geddes v. United Fin. Grp., 559 F.2d 557, 560 (9th Cir. 1977)). 18 Entry of default judgment is left to the court’s sound discretion. Aldabe v. Aldabe,

19 616 F.2d 1089, 1092 (9th Cir. 1980). In exercising its discretion, the court considers 20 seven factors (the “Eitel factors”): (1) the possibility of prejudice to the plaintiff if relief 21 is denied; (2) the substantive merits of the plaintiff’s claims; (3) the sufficiency of the 22 claims raised in the complaint; (4) the sum of money at stake in relationship to the 1 defendant’s behavior; (5) the possibility of a dispute concerning material facts; 2 (6) whether default was due to excusable neglect; and (7) the preference for decisions on

3 the merits when reasonably possible. Eitel v. McCool, 782 F.2d 1470, 1471-72 (9th Cir. 4 1986). After the court determines that default judgment is appropriate, it must then 5 determine the amount and character of the relief that should be awarded. See TeleVideo, 6 826 F.2d at 917-18. 7 B. Whether the Eitel Factors Favor Default Judgment 8 Default judgment is warranted in this case because, on balance, the Eitel factors

9 weigh in favor of such judgment. The court discusses each factor in turn. 10 1. Possibility of Prejudice to Plaintiff 11 The first Eitel factor considers whether the plaintiff will suffer prejudice if default 12 judgment is not entered. See PepsiCo, Inc., v. Cal. Sec. Cans, 238 F. Supp. 2d 1172, 13 1177 (C.D. Cal. 2002).

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