Mcgraw-Hill Global Educ. Holdings, LLC v. Mehul Mathrani, Ankush Sharma, Anshoo Sharma, & Ibestbargains, LLC

295 F. Supp. 3d 404
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedDecember 12, 2017
Docket16cv8530
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 295 F. Supp. 3d 404 (Mcgraw-Hill Global Educ. Holdings, LLC v. Mehul Mathrani, Ankush Sharma, Anshoo Sharma, & Ibestbargains, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mcgraw-Hill Global Educ. Holdings, LLC v. Mehul Mathrani, Ankush Sharma, Anshoo Sharma, & Ibestbargains, LLC, 295 F. Supp. 3d 404 (S.D. Ill. 2017).

Opinion

WILLIAM H. PAULEY III, District Judge:

*408McGraw-Hill Global Education Holdings, LLC, Pearson Education, Inc., Cengage Learning, Inc., and Elsevier Inc. bring this copyright and trademark infringement against Mehul Mathrani, Ankush Sharma, Anshoo Sharma, and iBestBargains, LLC.1 iBestBargains moves to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint ("Complaint") under Rule 12(b)(2) and Rule 12(b)(6). In addition, iBestBargains moves to strike two affidavits appended to Plaintiffs' opposition to iBestBargains' motion. For the reasons that follow, iBestBargains' motions are denied.

BACKGROUND

This case is one front in a multi-theater war by major textbook publishing companies against textbook counterfeiters in this District. The following facts are gleaned from the Complaint and are presumed true for the purposes of this motion. Plaintiffs are publishers and distributors of physical and digital textbooks and own copyrights in certain textbooks at issue in this action. (Compl. ¶¶ 21-23.) These textbooks also bear certain trademarks and service marks that Plaintiffs registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. (Compl. ¶ 24.)

The crux of the Complaint is that Defendants infringed Plaintiffs' copyrights and trademarks by engineering an international scheme to reproduce, import, distribute, and sell counterfeit versions of Plaintiffs' textbooks beginning in 2015 and continuing to this day. (Compl. ¶¶ 1, 3, 27.) Defendants-such as Mehul Mathrani in the United States and Ankush Sharma and Anshoo Sharma in India-allegedly perpetrated the scheme by creating a profusion of online accounts with wholesalers to whom they then sold counterfeit textbooks using automated "buyback" tools on the wholesalers' websites. (Compl. ¶¶ 18, 31-35, 39-41.) To ship the books to the wholesalers, the Indian operators of the online accounts sometimes provided the textbooks to shipping companies known as "freight forwarders" for delivery into the United States. (Compl. ¶¶ 35-36.) Once the books arrived in the United States, they were delivered to the wholesalers. (Compl. ¶¶ 14-15, 36.) Other times, the Indian operators of the online accounts shipped the counterfeit textbooks from India with the help of international logistics companies. (Compl. ¶ 40.) In addition, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants-such as Mehul Mathrani and iBestBargains-received bulk shipments of textbooks from India by seaborne freight, which they re-sold to wholesalers and individual consumers through online marketplaces, such as Amazon. (Compl. ¶¶ 31, 42-45.) Relevant to the issues raised in iBestBargains' motions, the Complaint alleges that iBestBargains purchased counterfeit textbooks from Radhika International, a known provider of counterfeit textbooks, for resale in the United States, and that the Sharma Defendants directed *409counterfeit textbooks to iBestBargains for resale.

DISCUSSION

I. Personal Jurisdiction

On a Rule 12(b)(2) motion, a plaintiff bears the burden of showing jurisdiction. Metro. Life. Ins. Co. v. Robertson-Ceco Corp., 84 F.3d 560, 566 (2d Cir. 1996). The showing a plaintiff must make "varies depending on the procedural posture of the litigation." Dorchester Financial Secs., Inc. v. Banco BRJ, S.A., 722 F.3d 81, 84 (2d Cir. 2013) (quotation marks omitted). Where a court has allowed jurisdictional discovery but has not held an evidentiary hearing, a plaintiff need only make a prima facie showing that "include[s] an averment of facts that, if credited ... would suffice to establish jurisdiction over the defendant." Ball v. Metallurgie Hoboken-Overpelt, S.A., 902 F.2d 194, 197 (2d Cir. 1990) ; DH Servs., LLC v. Positive Impact, Inc., 2014 WL 496875, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 5, 2014) (explaining that "[c]onclusory allegations will not suffice to meet this burden"). This showing may be made through pleadings, affidavits, and supporting materials. Whitaker v. Am. Telecasting, Inc., 261 F.3d 196, 208 (2d Cir. 2001). A court construes the pleadings and affidavits in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and resolves all doubts in plaintiff's favor, notwithstanding "any controverting presentation by the moving party." Dorchester, 722 F.3d at 85-86.

For a court to exercise personal jurisdiction, three requirements must be met: (1) "the plaintiff's service of process upon the defendant must have been procedurally proper"; (2) "there must be a statutory basis for personal jurisdiction"; and (3) "the exercise of personal jurisdiction must comport with constitutional due process principles." Waldman v. Palestine Liberation Org., 835 F.3d 317, 327 (2d Cir. 2016). Here, neither party disputes that Plaintiffs' service of process was procedurally proper. Instead, the parties' disagreement turns on the latter two requirements.

A. iBestBargains' New York Contacts

In determining the strength of the defendant's contacts under section 302(a) and the Due Process Clause for purposes of specific jurisdiction, a court considers "the totality of [a defendant's] contacts with the forum state." Chloe v. Queen Bee of Beverly Hills, LLC, 616 F.3d 158, 164 (2d Cir. 2010). Moreover, defendants that "are separate entities ... are presumptively entitled to have independent existence," and a plaintiff must establish a basis for exercising personal jurisdiction over each defendant. Cenage Learning Inc. v. Buckeye Books, 531 F.Supp.2d 596, 599 (S.D.N.Y. 2008) ("Lumping all the 'defendants' together for purposes of alleging connections to New York is ... patently insufficient.").

With respect to iBestBargains, the Complaint alleges that (1) Radhika International sold counterfeit textbooks to iBestBargains for resale; (2) the Sharma Defendants directed counterfeit textbooks to iBestBargains for resale; and (3) Plaintiffs purchased counterfeit textbooks, including

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Bluebook (online)
295 F. Supp. 3d 404, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcgraw-hill-global-educ-holdings-llc-v-mehul-mathrani-ankush-sharma-ilsd-2017.