Impossible Foods Inc. v. Impossible X LLC

District Court, N.D. California·Decided March 4, 2025·No. 5:21-cv-02419·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 4 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 SAN JOSE DIVISION 6 7 IMPOSSIBLE FOODS INC., Case No. 5:21-cv-02419-BLF

8 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF 9 v. IMPOSSIBLE FOODS INC.’S MOTION TO AMEND COMPLAINT AND 10 IMPOSSIBLE LLC et al., SCHEDULING ORDER; AND DENYING MOTION TO CONSIDER 11 Defendants. WHETHER ANOTHER PARTY’S MATERIAL SHOULD BE SEALED 12 [Re: Dkt. Nos. 137, 139] 13

14 15 Before the Court is Plaintiff Impossible Foods Inc.’s (“IF”) Motion to Amend Complaint 16 and Scheduling Order. Dkt. No. 137 (“Mot.”). Defendants Impossible LLC and Joel Runyon 17 (collectively, “Defendants” or “ILLC”) filed a “qualified objection” to the motion. Dkt. No. 142 18 (“Obj.”). Plaintiff filed a reply in support of its motion. Dkt. No. 143 (“Reply”). The Court finds 19 this motion suitable for submission without oral argument and hereby VACATES the hearing 20 scheduled for May 8, 2025. See Civ. L.R. 7-1(b). 21 For the reasons stated below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s motion (Dkt. No. 137). The 22 Court DENIES the accompanying Administrative Motion to Consider Whether Another Party’s 23 Material Should be Sealed (Dkt. No. 139). 24 I. BACKGROUND 25 On April 2, 2021, Plaintiff Impossible Foods Inc. filed a Complaint for Declaratory Relief 26 against Defendant Impossible LLC (then identified as “Impossible X LLC”), alleging one claim 27 “concerning the use of the IMPOSSIBLE mark and the respective trademark rights of the parties.” 1 dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, see Dkt. No. 55, the Court held a Case Management 2 Conference on January 25, 2024, Dkt. No. 69. The Court then issued the Case Management 3 Scheduling Order, which set the deadline for amending the pleadings as March 25, 2024. Dkt. No. 4 70. IF filed an Amended Complaint against Impossible LLC on February 16, 2024, again alleging 5 one claim for declaratory relief regarding the Parties’ trademark dispute. Dkt. No. 78. On March 6 8, 2024, Impossible LLC filed its Answer to the Amended Complaint and asserted various 7 Counterclaims. Dkt. No. 80. Impossible LLC amended its Counterclaims on April 4, 2024, Dkt. 8 No. 83, and IF filed an Answer to the Counterclaims on April 18, 2024, Dkt. No. 85. 9 Meanwhile, the Parties began serving discovery requests in March 2024. Dkt. No. 138, 10 Declaration of H. Forrest Flemming, III (“Flemming Decl.”) ¶¶ 2–3. After receiving initial 11 discovery responses, IF “sought ILLC’s consent for Impossible Foods to amend its complaint to 12 assert claims for trademark infringement and unfair competition.” Id. ¶ 4. Nine days after that, 13 and prior to responding to IF’s request, ILLC “filed an affidavit under Section 15 of the Lanham 14 Act with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”),” id. ¶ 5, in which Joel Runyon 15 declared that “[t]he [IMPOSSIBLE Nutrition Design Mark, Registration No. 5387588] has been in 16 continuous use in commerce for five consecutive years after the date of registration . . . and is still 17 in use in commerce on or in connection with all goods/services . . . listed in the existing 18 registration,” id., Ex. A at 7. The affidavit further declared that “[t]here is no proceeding 19 involving said rights pending and not finally disposed of . . . in a court.” Id., Ex. A at 8. ILLC’s 20 counsel then declined IF’s request to stipulate to an amendment. Flemming Decl. ¶ 6. IF’s 21 counsel requested that ILLC withdraw the Section 15 affidavit, but ILLC’s counsel declined that 22 request as well. Id. ¶¶ 8–9. 23 On July 23, 2024, IF sought to amend its Complaint to add trademark infringement and 24 unfair competition claims against both ILLC and Defendant Joel Runyon (“Runyon”). Dkt. No. 25 92. At that time, IF indicated that it “believe[d] that additional discovery w[ould] show that ILLC 26 committed fraud upon the United States Patent & Trademark Office on July 12, 2024,” but that it 27 needed “additional discovery to meet the heightened pleading standards of Federal Rule of Civil 1 that “[a]ny further amendment to add a fraud claim shall be the subject of a later motion that 2 includes a proposed pleading.” Dkt. No. 101 at 10. 3 Also relevant to this motion is a February 3, 2024 “post-registration office action” (“Office 4 Action”) by the PTO. Flemming Decl. ¶ 27. In that Office Action, PTO requested that ILLC 5 either (1) submit evidence of current use of ILLC’s marks in connection with particular identified 6 goods and/or services in commerce, or (2) delete those goods and/or services from the registration. 7 Id., Ex. I. The deadline for compliance was set as December 4, 2024. Id., Ex. I at 5. On 8 December 4, 2024, ILLC responded by deleting various goods from its trademark registrations, 9 including “sweatshirts, pants, shorts, . . . yoga pants, tights and underwear.” Flemming Decl. ¶ 28 10 & Ex. J at 2. 11 II. LEGAL STANDARD 12 When the deadline for amending the pleadings set in a court’s scheduling order has passed, 13 a party seeking leave to amend must first seek modification of the scheduling order. DRK Photo 14 v. McGraw-Hill Glob. Educ. Holdings, LLC, 870 F.3d 978, 989 (9th Cir. 2017). Under Federal 15 Rule of Civil Procedure 16, a scheduling order “may be modified only for good cause and with the 16 judge’s consent.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4). “The central inquiry under Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4) is 17 whether the requesting party was diligent in seeking the amendment.” DRK Photo, 870 F.3d at 18 989 (citing In re W. States Wholesale Nat. Gas Antitrust Litig., 715 F.3d 716, 737 (9th Cir. 2013), 19 aff’d sub nom. Oneok, Inc. v. Learjet, Inc., 575 U.S. 373 (2015)). “If th[e] party was not diligent, 20 the inquiry should end.” Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 21 1992). “Although the existence or degree of prejudice to the party opposing the modification 22 might supply additional reasons to deny a motion, the focus of the inquiry is upon the moving 23 party’s reasons for seeking modification.” Id. 24 “If the moving party establishes good cause to modify the scheduling order, it must then 25 demonstrate that its motion is also proper under Rule 15.” VLSI Tech. LLC v. Intel Corp., No. 17- 26 cv-05671, 2024 WL 664804, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 16, 2024) (internal quotations omitted). Under 27 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15, “[a] party may amend its pleading once as a matter of course” 1 its pleading only with the opposing party’s written consent or the court’s leave.” Id. 15(a)(2). 2 “The court should freely give leave when justice so requires.” Id. A district court ordinarily must 3 grant leave to amend unless one or more of the following “Foman factors” is present: (1) undue 4 delay, (2) bad faith or dilatory motive, (3) repeated failure to cure deficiencies by amendment, (4) 5 undue prejudice to the opposing party, or (5) futility of amendment. See Eminence Capital, LLC 6 v. Aspeon, Inc., 316 F.3d 1048, 1052 (9th Cir. 2003) (citing Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182 7 (1962)). “[I]t is the consideration of prejudice to the opposing party that carries the greatest 8 weight.” Id.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Impossible Foods Inc. v. Impossible X LLC, (N.D. Cal. 2025).

Impossible Foods Inc. v. Impossible X LLC (Impossible Foods Inc. v. Impossible X LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Foman v. Davis
371 U.S. 178 (Supreme Court, 1962)
Learjet, Inc. v. Oneok, Inc.
715 F.3d 716 (Ninth Circuit, 2013)
Oneok, Inc. v. Learjet, Inc.
575 U.S. 373 (Supreme Court, 2015)
Sweaney v. Ada County
119 F.3d 1385 (Ninth Circuit, 1997)
Barahona v. Union Pacific Railroad
881 F.3d 1122 (Ninth Circuit, 2018)
Wizards of the Coast LLC v. Cryptozoic Entertainment LLC
309 F.R.D. 645 (W.D. Washington, 2015)