Kinsley Technology Co. v. Ya Ya Creations, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedMay 18, 2022
Docket2:20-cv-04310
StatusUnknown

This text of Kinsley Technology Co. v. Ya Ya Creations, Inc. (Kinsley Technology Co. v. Ya Ya Creations, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kinsley Technology Co. v. Ya Ya Creations, Inc., (C.D. Cal. 2022).

Opinion

Case 2:20-cv-04310-ODW-KS Document 188 Filed 05/18/22 Page 1 of 12 Page ID #:2036

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8 United States District Court 9 Central District of California 10 11 KINSLEY TECHNOLOGY CO., Case № 2:20-cv-04310-ODW (KSx)

12 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S 13 v. MOTION FOR DEFAULT

14 YA YA CREATIONS, INC., et al., JUDGMENT [178] [187]

15 Defendants. 16 17 I. INTRODUCTION 18 Plaintiff Kinsley Technology Co. sells disposable surgical facemasks on 19 Amazon.com under its federally registered “SUNCOO” trademark. (First Am. Compl. 20 (“FAC”) ¶¶ 34, 40, ECF No. 31.) Kinsley alleges that a litany of third-party sellers 21 sold counterfeit facemasks not manufactured by Kinsley through the unique Amazon 22 product page Kinsley created for its SUNCOO-branded masks. Kinsley sued 23 numerous third-party sellers and Amazon for trademark infringement. Kinsley now 24 seeks default judgment against thirteen of the third-party seller Defendants, (Mot. 25 Default J. (“Motion” or “Mot.”), ECF No. 178.) After carefully considering the 26 papers filed in connection with the Motion, the Court deemed the matter appropriate 27 for decision without oral argument. Fed. R. Civ. P. 78; C.D. Cal. L.R. 7-15. For the 28 Case 2:20-cv-04310-ODW-KS Document 188 Filed 05/18/22 Page 2 of 12 Page ID #:2037

1 reasons that follow, the Court lacks personal jurisdiction over all but one of the 2 defaulting Defendants and accordingly DENIES the Motion. 3 II. BACKGROUND 4 The well-pleaded allegations in Kinsley’s First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) 5 are as follows. See Televideo Sys., Inc. v. Heidenthal, 826 F.2d 915, 917–18 (9th Cir. 6 1987) (per curiam) (citing Geddes v. United Fin. Grp., 559 F.2d 557, 560 (9th Cir. 7 1977)) (“The general rule of law is that upon default the factual allegations of the 8 complaint, except those relating to the amount of damages, will be taken as true.”). 9 Kinsley is the owner of U.S. Trademark Registration No. 5,627,817 for the 10 word mark SUNCOO in international class 010 (medical apparatus). (FAC ¶ 34, ECF 11 No. 31.) Kinsley and its sole importer/distributor, who is based in California, use the 12 SUNCOO word mark in connection with the sale of their disposable facemasks. 13 (FAC ¶ 37.) 14 The primary sales channel Kinsley uses is the Amazon marketplace at 15 www.amazon.com. (FAC ¶ 40.) Through its Fulfillment by Amazon program, 16 Amazon works with third-party sellers by allowing sellers to list their products on the 17 Amazon Marketplace. (FAC ¶ 43.) The sellers ship their products in bulk to 18 Amazon’s warehouses and pay Amazon a fee for storing and maintaining the 19 inventory, and when a customer purchases a product online, Amazon ships the product 20 to the customer. (FAC ¶¶ 44–45.) Kinsley and its importer/distributor have utilized 21 the Fulfillment by Amazon program to offer its SUNCOO-branded face masks to 22 Amazon’s customers. (FAC ¶ 47.) 23 In order to sell third-party products such as Kinsley’s face masks on its 24 platform, Amazon assigns each product sold on the Amazon Marketplace an Amazon 25 Standard Identification Number (“ASIN”). (FAC ¶ 49.) Every product sold on the 26 Amazon Marketplace has an ASIN associated with it, and without an ASIN, a product 27 cannot be listed or sold on Amazon’s website. (FAC ¶¶ 50, 51.) 28

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1 Amazon assigned Kinsley’s SUNCOO-branded masks an ASIN, and Kinsley 2 used this ASIN to create an associated product page for its masks. (See FAC ¶ 53.) 3 The SUNCOO mask product page included descriptions, images, and information 4 noting its status as an FDA-registered importer and distributor of the facemasks, 5 which are regulated by FDA as medical devices. (FAC ¶ 55.) Kinsley alleges that, 6 because only Kinsley and its importer/distributor sell genuine SUNCOO-branded face 7 masks, only Kinsley’s face masks should appear as products for sale on Kinsley’s 8 product page. (FAC ¶ 56.) Nevertheless, the third-party seller Defendants obtained 9 Kinsley’s ASIN and used it to sell counterfeit masks through Kinsley’s product page. 10 (FAC ¶¶ 70–71.) Thus, customers purchasing masks through Kinsley’s product page 11 for SUNCOO-branded masks would place an order and receive masks not 12 manufactured by Kinsley, in either unbranded packaging or counterfeit packaging. 13 (FAC ¶¶ 60, 68–70; see Order Granting Mot. Prelim. Inj. 3–4, ECF No. 147.) 14 On May 12, 2020, Kinsley brought suit against Amazon and fifteen third-party 15 seller Defendants. (Compl., ECF No. 1; id. Schedule A, ECF No. 1-1.) In the period 16 of time since Kinsley filed this case, it added additional seller Defendants, and it 17 settled with and dismissed certain seller Defendants. Kinsley also settled with and 18 dismissed Amazon. (Stip. Dismiss, ECF No. 186.) During this process, Defendant 19 Leskro, Inc. moved to dismiss the claims against it under, among other things, Federal 20 Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 12(b)(2), for lack of allegations supporting subject 21 matter jurisdiction. (Mot. Dismiss, ECF No. 100.) The Court denied the Motion. 22 (Order Den. Mot. Dismiss, ECF No. 143.) Shortly thereafter, Kinsley dismissed 23 Leskro. (Stip., ECF No. 160.) 24 At this juncture, all Defendants who have appeared have been dismissed, and 25 thirteen defaulting Defendants remain: Toysters, 3Ply, Exquisite Buys, LankeyFit, 26 Natural System Solutions, Smart Student, National Supply Distributors, ETrading-LV, 27 YiGooood, AshleyDevice DMD, JYDress, Tianhuikeji, Yuelove, and Mercate Group. 28 These Defendants are the subject of this Motion.

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1 III. LEGAL STANDARD 2 Rule 55(b) authorizes a district court to grant default judgment against a 3 defendant who fails to respond to a complaint following an entry of default by the 4 clerk under Rule 55(a). Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(b)(2). 5 “[B]efore entering a default judgment, a court must consider whether it has 6 personal jurisdiction over the defaulting defendant . . . .” Zheng v. Li, No. CV 18- 7 8387 PA (JEMx), 2019 WL 1670751, at *2 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 1, 2019); see Parsons v. 8 Fisher, No. 13-CV-06438 DMG (JCx), 2014 WL 12560789, at *1 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 25, 9 2014) (“When a court considers whether to enter a default judgment, however, it may 10 dismiss an action for lack of personal jurisdiction sua sponte.”). One reason courts 11 undertake this inquiry is that “[a] default judgment entered without personal 12 jurisdiction over the parties is void, and a court should determine whether it has 13 jurisdiction to enter the judgment in the first place to avoid entering a judgment that 14 can later be successfully attacked as void.” Parsons, 2014 WL 12560789, at *1. 15 The plaintiff bears the burden of establishing personal jurisdiction. Ziegler v. 16 Indian River County, 64 F.3d 470, 473 (9th Cir. 1995). “If a court has not heard 17 testimony or made factual determinations, however, the plaintiff must only make a 18 prima facie showing of personal jurisdiction.” Zheng, 2019 WL 1670751, at *2. “The 19 plaintiff may use affidavits of knowledgeable witnesses in meeting its burden of 20 proving jurisdiction.” Id. (citing Data Disc, Inc. v. Sys. Tech. Assocs., Inc., 557 F.2d 21 1280, 1285 (9th Cir. 1977)). 22 In making this showing, “the plaintiff cannot ‘simply rest on the bare 23 allegations of its complaint.’” Parsons, 2014 WL 12560789, at *2 (quoting 24 Schwarzenegger v.

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Kinsley Technology Co. v. Ya Ya Creations, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kinsley-technology-co-v-ya-ya-creations-inc-cacd-2022.