Luxottica Group, S.p.A. v. Airport Mini Mall, LLC

234 F. Supp. 3d 1265, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35018, 2017 WL 836919
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedFebruary 10, 2017
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 1:15-cv-1422-AT
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 234 F. Supp. 3d 1265 (Luxottica Group, S.p.A. v. Airport Mini Mall, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Luxottica Group, S.p.A. v. Airport Mini Mall, LLC, 234 F. Supp. 3d 1265, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35018, 2017 WL 836919 (N.D. Ga. 2017).

Opinion

ORDER

Amy Totenberg, United States District Judge

This matter is before the Court on Defendants’ Second Motion in Limine [Doc. 108] seeking to exclude evidence or arguments from Plaintiffs regarding: (a) sales or purchases involving tenants other than those identified in Plaintiffs’ notice letter; (b) seizures of counterfeit goods before Defendants received Plaintiffs’ notice letter; and (c) alleged sales or seizure of goods other than Ray-Ban or Oakley sunglasses. The Court held a Pretrial Conference on February 3, 2017, and heard argument from the parties. In particular, Defendants challenge the admissibility of evidence of other counterfeit sales at the Discount Mall prior to 2009, when Defendants contend they began operating the Discount Mall. The Court deferred ruling on Defendants’ Second Motion in Limine and asked the parties to submit additional materials for consideration.

I. BACKGROUND

Luxottica manufactures, markets, and sells premium, luxury and sports eyewear under various proprietary trademarked brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley. Luxottica does not offer its merchandise for sale through individuals, street vendors, unauthorized retail locations, or flea markets. According to its Complaint, Lux-ottica operates over 7,000 retail stores, including LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, and Sunglass Hut. Defendants are each alleged to be owners and operators of the Old National Discount Mall (also referred to as the International Discount Mall), an indoor “flea market” near the Atlanta airport in College Park, Georgia. Luxottica asserts that certain vendors at the Discount Mall have sold and continue to sell an array of counterfeit goods, including “knock-off’ Ray-Ban and Oakley sunglasses.

Luxottica’s trademark-investigators, third party investigators, and federal and state law enforcement agencies visited the Discount Mall numerous times in the past several years to conduct undercover surveys, purchase counterfeit merchandise, or participate in seizures carried out by law enforcement agencies. On November 13, 2014, Luxottica’s investigator visited the Discount Mall and observed multiple vendors displaying in plain view counterfeit Ray-Ban and Oakley merchandise for sale.

On November 21, 2014, officers from the United States Department of Homeland Security and the College Park Police Department raided the Discount Mall and seized thousands of counterfeit products, including counterfeit Ray-Ban and Oakley merchandise. The raid resulted in the arrest of 16 vendors.

Luxottica’s investigators visited the Discount Mall, observed sales of fake Ray-Bans and Oakleys and made purchases themselves of several pairs of counterfeit sunglasses for around $15.00 to $20.00 on multiple undercover trips in November 2014, March, 2015, April 2015, and. October 2015. Luxottica sent cease and desist letters to the Discount Mall on December 9, 2014 and April 22, 2015, notifying them that tenants at the Discount Mall were trafficking in counterfeit Ray-Ban and Oakley merchandise.

Luxottica filed suit on April 29, 2015, seeking to hold Defendants as the owners and operators of the Discount Mall contri-butorially liable pursuant to the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1114, for the infringing acts of the individual vendors directly engaged in selling the counterfeit merchandise.

A brief discussion of contributory liability principles provides helpful context for the Court’s discussion of the facts and [1268]*1268evidence below. Liability under the Lan-ham Act “extends beyond direct violators of the trademark.” Duty Free Americas, Inc. v. Estee Lauder Companies, Inc., 797 F.3d 1248, 1276 (11th Cir. 2015) (citing Inwood Labs., Inc. v. Ives Labs., Inc., 456 U.S. 844, 854, 102 S.Ct. 2182, 72 L.Ed.2d 606 (1982)); Mini Maid Servs. Co. v. Maid Brigade Sys., Inc., 967 F.2d 1516, 1522 (11th Cir. 1992) (holding that under certain circumstances, “Pliability, for trademark infringement can extend beyond those entities that actually perform the acts of infringement”) (citing Inwood (“Thus, if a manufacturer or distributor intentionally induces another to infringe a trademark, or if it continues to supply its product to one who it knows or has reason to know is engaging in trademark infringement, the manufacturer or distributor is contributo-rially responsible for any harm done as a result of the deceit.”)). Several courts have extended liability for contributory trademark infringement to owners and operators of fléá markets and other locations where multiple individual vendors come together to sell counterfeit gpods. See, e.g., Hard Rock Cafe Licensing Corp. v. Concession Servs., Inc., 955 F.2d 1143, 1149-1150 (7th Cir. 1992) (applying Inwood liability test for contributory trademark infringement to find that the owner and operator of a flea market may be subject to contributory liability where counterfeit items were sold and finding that owner/operator, though lacking actual knowledge, had reason to know of trademark violations of its vendors and by “willfull blindness” deliberately failed' to investigate suspected infringing activity by vendors, thereby facilitating ongoing infringement by permitting such vendors to use flea market resources); Fonovisa, Inc. v. Cherry Auction, Inc., 76 F.3d 259, 264-265 (9th Cir. 1996) (adopting Hard Rock Cafe’s application of contributory trademark infringement liability to operators of a swap meet who had reason to know of infringing activity after law enforcement officers raided the flea market and seized counterfeit merchandise); Coach v. Goodfellow, 717 F.3d 498 (6th Cir. 2013) (holding that facts were sufficient to support a finding of contributory liability as to flea market operator, as “provider of a product or service, i.e., rental booths and storage units for vendors” who “continued to rent spaces at his flea market to vendors that he knew, or should have known, were engaging in infringing activity”); Coach Inc. v. Swap Shop, Inc., 916 F.Supp.2d 1271, 1279 (S.D. Fla. 2012) (holding that plaintiffs stated a plausible claim that owners and operators of a flea market were either willfully blind to Lanham Act violations or had actual knowledge of them, and were therefore liable for contributory trademark infringement, where prior police raids and seizures of counterfeit bags and other products had occurred, operator was notified of violations, and trademark holder had sent investigators to flea market); Coach, Inc. v. Sapatis, 994 F.Supp.2d 192 (D. New Hampshire 2014) (finding that the defendant’s degree of control over the infringer—rather than his or her nominative status as owner, lessor, or lessee—as the determinative factor and denying motion for summary judgment of individual owner and operator of flea market where the evidence viewed in the light most favorable to Coach indicated he exercised sufficient control over the flea market and its vendors for a reasonable jury to hold him eontributorially liable for the vendors’ conduct).

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234 F. Supp. 3d 1265, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35018, 2017 WL 836919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/luxottica-group-spa-v-airport-mini-mall-llc-gand-2017.