Hart v. Amazon.com, Inc.

191 F. Supp. 3d 809, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76837, 2016 WL 3360639
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJune 13, 2016
DocketNo. 15 C 01217
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 191 F. Supp. 3d 809 (Hart v. Amazon.com, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hart v. Amazon.com, Inc., 191 F. Supp. 3d 809, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76837, 2016 WL 3360639 (N.D. Ill. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Chief Judge Rubén Castillo, United States District Judge

Reginald Hart (“Plaintiff”) brings his áménded complaint in this action against Defendant Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”)1 alleging trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false designation of origin under Illinois common law and the Lan-ham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125. (R. 68, Am. Compl.) Plaintiff also alleges negligence, promissory estoppel, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (“ICFA”), 815 ill. Comp. Stat. 505/1 et seq., the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“IUDTPA”), 815 ill. Comp. Stat. 510/1 et seq., and the Illinois Right of Publicity Act (“IRPA”), 765 ill. Comp. Stat. 1075/1 et seq. (R. 68, Am. Compl.) Presently before the Court is' Amazon’s motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). (R. 69, Mot.) For the reasons stated below, the motion is granted.

RELEVANT FACTS

Plaintiffs amended complaint includes many of .the same facts as his original complaint, which have already been explained in this Court’s prior opinion, Hart v. Amazon.com, No. 15-C-01217, 2015 WL 8489973, at *1 (N.D.I11. Dec. 8, 2015); accordingly, only a brief recitation of the relevant facts is required. Plaintiff, a resident of Illinois, has authored two books: Vagabond. Natural and Vagabond Spiritual. (R. 68, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 1-2.) These books focus on Plaintiffs experiences with homelessness and seek to “raise money and bring an end to vagabondage —” (Id. ¶2.) Plaintiff has “never sold Vagabond Spiritual in the market place” and has only distributed a limited number of copies of Vagabond Natural. (Id. ¶¶ 45-46, 60.)

Despite the limited distribution of Plaintiffs books, Plaintiff discovered copies of Vagabond Natural and Vagabond Spiritual listed for sale on Amazon’s website. (Id. ¶¶ 45-46.) Plaintiff believes that these' copies were counterfeits. (Id. ¶¶ 39-47.) Throughout March 2014, Plaintiff submitted a series of electronic notices to Amazon through its “Report Infringement” webpage claiming that Amazon was selling “unlawful1 reproductions” of his books. (Id. ¶¶ 39-41.) Plaintiff also sent Amazon a letter dated March 23, 2014, asking Amazon to remove the books from its website, disclose how long the books had been available for sale, and specify how many copies had been sold. (Id. ¶ 47; R. 68, Ex. 8 to Am. Compl.) Amazon responded with a letter that “implied ... it was solely a search engine and not an online retailer.” (R. 68, Am. Compl. ¶47.) Approximately nine months later, Plaintiff submitted another electronic notice asking Amazon to remove the books from its website because Vagabond Natural and Vagabond Spiritual “[had] never been published to the public at large.” (Id. ¶ 42; R. 68, Ex. 4 to Am. Compl.)

[815]*815On January 21, 2015, Amazon sent Plaintiff an email informing him that it was “in the process of removing” Vagabond Natural and Vagabond Spiritual from its website and that “[i]t typically takes 2-3 days for a listing to disappear once it has been removed.” (R. 68, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 80, 90; R. 68, Ex. 10 to Am. Compl.) Both books remained on Amazon’s website until March 25, 2015. (R. 68, Am. Compl. ¶ 103.) Amazon provided Hart with its sales records, which indicate that there were a total of six sales of Hart’s books by third parties through Amazon’s website. (R. 68, Ex. 7 to Am. Compl.) Pláintiff claims that Amazon’s conduct caused him “mental anguish” and violated his trademark rights. (Id. ¶¶77, 83, 87, 93,123.)

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff first filed a pro se complaint on February 9,2015, against Amazon and “All Unknown and 'Known Third Party Agent Sellers of Amazon”-alleging direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringement under the Federal Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., negligent spoliation of evidence, aiding and abetting “wrongful acts,” intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a violation of the IRPA. Hart, 2015-WL 8489973, at *2. On March 15, 2015, Plaintiff moved to have counsel appointed. (R. 28, Min. Entry.) The Court granted Plaintiffs motion and counsel appeared on Plaintiffs behalf. (Id.) R. 30, Appearance.) However, appointed counsel subsequently moved to withdraw because Plaintiff “insist[ed] upon presenting a claim that, in [counsel’s] view, [was] not warranted under existing law and [could not] be supported by a reasonable argument for an extension, modification, or reversal of existing law.” (R. 37, Mot. to Withdraw.) Following an unsuccessful settlement conference with Amazon, the Court granted 'counsel's motion to withdraw. (R. 41, Min. Entry.)

On August 19, 2015, Amazon moved for judgment on the pleadings arguing that Plaintiffs claims were “legally and factually deficient.” (R. 43, Def.’s Mot. at 15.) The Court granted Amazon’s motion because Plaintiff failed to adequately plead his claims. Hart, 2015 WL 8489973, at *9. However, this Court granted him leave to file an amended complaint consistent with the Court’s opinion. Id. On January 4, 2016, Plaintiff filed an amended complaint alleging negligence (Count I), “trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false designation of origin” (Count II), a violation of the ICFA (Count III), a violation of the IUDTPA (Count IV), promissory es-toppel (Count V), a violation of the IRPA (Count VI), and negligent infliction of emotional distress (Count VII). (R. 68, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 48-123.) Amazon again moves to dismiss, (R. 69, Mot.; 70, Mem.)

LEGAL STANDARD

“A motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) challenges the viability of a complaint by arguing that it fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.” Firestone Fin. Carp. v. Meyer, 796 F.3d 822, 825 (7th Cir.2015) (alterations and citation omitted). To survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), a complaint must provide “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). Under this standard, the Court “accept[s] as true all of the well-pleaded facts in the complaint and draw[s] all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff.” Kubiak v. City of Chi., 810 [816]*816F.3d 476, 480-81 (7th Cir.2016). However, the Court “need not accept as true any legal assertions or recital of the elements of a cause of action supported by.mere conclusory statements.” Vesely v, Armslist LLC, 762 F.3d 661, 664-65 (7th Cir.2014) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

Because Plaintiff is proceeding pro se,

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191 F. Supp. 3d 809, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76837, 2016 WL 3360639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hart-v-amazoncom-inc-ilnd-2016.