Tottenham Hotspur Limited v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 12, 2025
Docket1:25-cv-20476
StatusUnknown

This text of Tottenham Hotspur Limited v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A (Tottenham Hotspur Limited v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tottenham Hotspur Limited v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A, (S.D. Fla. 2025).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

CASE NO. 25-CV-20476-MOORE/Elfenbein

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR LIMITED,

Plaintiff,

v.

THE PARTNERSHIPS AND UNINCORPORATED ASSOCIATIONS IDENTIFIED ON SCHEDULE A,

Defendants. _________________________________________/

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION ON MOTION FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT THIS CAUSE is before the Court on Plaintiff Tottenham Hotspur Limited’s Motion for Default Judgment (the “Motion”). See ECF No. [32]. The Honorable K. Michael Moore referred the Motion to me “to take all necessary and proper action as required by law and/or issue a Report and Recommendation regarding Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment.” See ECF No. [34]. For the reasons explained below, I respectfully RECOMMEND that the Motion, ECF No. [32], be DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE. I. BACKGROUND1

Plaintiff, Tottenham Hotspur Limited, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, England that competes in the English Premier League, the highest level of the English football league system. See ECF No. [1] at ¶¶4, 6; ECF No. [16-2] at ¶3. Plaintiff owns the following

1 Because Plaintiff has obtained a clerk’s entry of default, see ECF No. [29], the Court accepts as true the well-pleaded factual allegations of the Amended Complaint, see TracFone Wireless, Inc. v. Hernandez, 196 F. Supp. 3d 1289, 1298 (S.D. Fla. 2016), but not its conclusions of law, see Surtain v. Hamlin Terrace Found, 789 F.3d 1239, 1245 (11th Cir. 2015). CASE NO. 25-CV-20476-MOORE/Elfenbein

federally registered trademarks (collectively, the “Tottenham Trademarks”), see ECF No. [1] at 410, which are valid and enforceable, see ECF No. [1] at 411:

Registration 7,980,045

2,952,962 CGasry owiys

“A 2,952,963 [Auber TeT-FACERE ~ ¥ WA 4,903,251 CWatimseaceneU

4,929,549 Zs HoTsPu®

Plaintiff is, in part, engaged in producing, manufacturing, and distributing premium athletic apparel, accessories, and other products within this judicial district and throughout the United States (collectively, the “Tottenham Products”), which prominently feature the famous, internationally recognized, federally registered trademarks. See ECF No. [1] at §7. Tottenham Products typically include one or more of the Tottenham Trademarks. See ECF No. [1] at 410. Plaintiff is considered the eighth most famous football club in the world valued at $3.2 billion. See ECF No. [1] at 98. For generations, Plaintiffhas been among the leaders in the field of apparel and accessories. See ECF No. [1] at 7. Tottenham Products are sold to consumers through Plaintiffs official website, tottenhamhotspur.com, and through authorized retailers like DICK’s Sporting Goods. See ECF [1] at 49. Plaintiff has invested millions of dollars annually to market and promote the Tottenham Products that feature the Tottenham Trademarks. See ECF No. [1] at 912. Tottenham Products have become Plaintiffs valuable assets due to their widespread fame, outstanding reputation, and significant goodwill associated with the brand. See ECF No. [1] at §15. The brand’s success resulted in substantial counterfeiting of the Tottenham Trademarks, which Plaintiff has tried to

combat through a trademark protection and enforcement program done in collaboration with the English Premier League to investigate suspicious e-commerce stores and to enforce the protection of their trademark rights. See ECF No. [1] at ¶4. In recent years, Plaintiff identified numerous fully interactive e-commerce stores that were offering for sale or selling unauthorized and

unlicensed products, including apparel, bearing infringing and counterfeit versions of Plaintiff’s federally registered trademarks to consumers throughout the United States (the “Counterfeit Products”). See ECF No. [1] at ¶19. Defendants are unknown individuals and business entities that create these e-commerce stores under the seller aliases identified in Schedule A (the “Seller Aliases”) that “are advertising, offering for sale, and selling Counterfeit Products to unknowing consumers” in this judicial district and throughout the United States. See ECF No. [1] at ¶5. They “facilitate sales by designing the e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases so that they appear to unknowing consumers to be authorized online retailers, outlet stores, or wholesalers.” See ECF No. [1] at ¶22. Defendants’ e-commerce stores “appear sophisticated and accept payment in U.S. dollars and/or

funds from U.S. bank accounts” and “often include content and images that make it very difficult for consumers to distinguish such stores from an authorized retailer.” See ECF No. [1] at ¶22. However, Plaintiff has neither licensed nor authorized Defendants to use any of the Tottenham Trademarks, and they are not authorized retailers of genuine Tottenham Products. See ECF No. [1] at ¶22. Third-party service providers, like those Defendants use, do not require sellers to verify and confirm their identities or identify an underlying business entity, thereby allowing counterfeiters to have multiple seemingly unrelated, but commonly owned, profiles that “create bureaucratic or technical hurdles in helping brand owners to locate or identify sources of counterfeits or counterfeiters.” See ECF No. [1] at ¶20. “E-commerce store operators like Defendants maintain off-shore bank accounts and regularly move funds from their financial accounts to off-shore accounts outside the jurisdiction of this Court to avoid payment of any monetary judgment awarded to Plaintiff.” See ECF No. [1] at ¶28.

On January 31, 2025, Plaintiff filed a Complaint to “combat e-commerce store operators who trade upon Plaintiff’s reputation and goodwill by offering for sale and/or selling unauthorized and unlicensed products.” See ECF No. [1] at ¶4. The Complaint includes two claims: (1) trademark counterfeiting and infringement, in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1114; and (2) false designation of origin, in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a). ECF No. [1] at 12–14. In the Complaint, Plaintiff seeks temporary, preliminary, and permanent injunctions pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 1116, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a), The All Writs Act, and Rule 65 to prevent Defendants from selling the counterfeit products. See ECF No. [1] at 14-16. Plaintiff also seeks monetary relief in the amount of Defendants’ profits from selling the counterfeit products or alternatively statutory damages as allowed under 15 U.S.C. § 1117. See ECF No. [1] at 14-16.

On February 27, 2025, Plaintiff filed the Ex Parte Motion for Entry of Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction, Temporary Injunction, Temporary Asset Restraint, and Expedited Discovery. See ECF No. [16]. Judge Moore thereafter issued a temporary restraining order in which he referred the request for a preliminary injunction to the undersigned and granted Plaintiff’s Ex Parte Motion for Electronic Service of Process Pursuant to Rule 4(f)(3). See ECF No. [17]; ECF No. [11]; ECF No. [19]. Plaintiff served Defendants with all filings in this matter by email and through the designated serving notice website, including a copy of the Court’s Order Setting Preliminary Injunction Hearing, but Defendants did not respond to the motion or otherwise object to its entry, and they were not present at the Preliminary Injunction Hearing. See ECF No. [21]; ECF No. [20]; ECF No. [25].

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