U.S. Vinyl Manufacturing Corp. v. Colour & Design, Inc.

32 F. Supp. 3d 1253, 2013 WL 8923524, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188325
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedSeptember 26, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 4:12-CV-00217-HLM
StatusPublished

This text of 32 F. Supp. 3d 1253 (U.S. Vinyl Manufacturing Corp. v. Colour & Design, Inc.) 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
U.S. Vinyl Manufacturing Corp. v. Colour & Design, Inc., 32 F. Supp. 3d 1253, 2013 WL 8923524, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188325 (N.D. Ga. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

HAROLD L. MURPHY, District Judge.

This case is before the Court on Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant’s (“Plaintiff’) Motion for Partial Summary Judgment [70].

I. Background

A. Procedural Background

On August 16, 2012, Plaintiff filed a Complaint in the Superior Court of Walker County, Georgia. (Docket Entry No. 1 (Compl.) at 1.) Plaintiff alleged various claims: breach of contract (id. ¶¶ 32-35); tortious breach of fiduciary duty (id. ¶¶ 36-39); and constructive fraud (id. ¶¶ 40^45); Plaintiff also sought punitive damages (id. ¶¶ 46-48). Regarding its constructive fraud claim, Plaintiff asked the Court to “equitably enjoin Defendant from enforcing any copyright royalties against [Plaintiff] related to any [P]atterns produced by [Defendant] under the [Contract] for [Plaintiff].” (Compl. at 15; see also Compl. ¶ 45.) On September 17, 2012, Defendant removed the Complaint to this Court, citing the Court’s federal question jurisdiction. (Docket Entry No. 1 at 3.)

On September 24, 2012, Defendant filed its Answer to the Complaint as well as its Counterclaims. (Docket Entry No. 3.) Defendant sought relief for several claims: copyright infringement (Counterclaim (Docket Entry No. 3) ¶¶ 48-57); trademark infringement (id. ¶¶ 58-64); breach of contract (id. ¶¶ 65-68); and conversion (id. ¶¶ 71-75). Defendant also sought an accounting for amounts due under the Contract (id. ¶¶ 69-70) and asked the Court to preliminarily and permanently enjoin Plaintiff, and its associated parties and entities, from, among other things, “reproducing, displaying, distributing copies of, preparing derivative works based upon, selling or otherwise using [the Patterns] or any other design substantially similar to any design in which Defendants hold the copyright.” (Answer and Counterclaims at 33-34.)

In Plaintiffs Answer to Defendant’s Counterclaim, Plaintiff first asserted full ownership of the copyright for SATO. (Docket Entry No. 5 ¶ 25.) On November 5, 2012, Defendant responded, asserting its own rights in the SATO pattern, and filed its own Counterclaim, requesting that Plaintiff account to Defendant for profits earned from the SATO pattern. (Docket Entry No. 17 ¶¶ 6-9.) Plaintiff filed its Answer to that Counterclaim on July 22, 2012. (Docket Entry No. 22.)

On January 22, 2013, Plaintiff filed a Motion to Dismiss Defendant’s copyright infringement Counterclaim. (Docket Entry No. 31.) Defendant in turn filed a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, asking the Court to dismiss Plaintiffs constructive fraud claim. (Docket Entry No. 34.) On March 25, 2013, the Court granted Plaintiffs Motion to Dismiss and dismissed without prejudice Defendant’s copyright infringement counterclaim. (Order of Mar. 25, 2013 (Docket Entry No. 39) at 73.) The Court also granted Defendant’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings and dismissed without prejudice Plaintiffs constructive fraud claim. (Id.)

On May 24, 2013, Plaintiff submitted a Motion to Amend (Docket Entry No. 46) and Motion to Deposit (Docket Entry No. 45). On August 5, 2013, the Court granted [1255]*1255Plaintiffs Motion to Amend and Motion to Deposit. (Order of Aug. 5, 2013 (Docket Entry No. 65)). In that Order, the Court directed Plaintiff, within thirty days, to deposit ten percent of Plaintiffs customer invoiced price on all the Patterns, including the SATO pattern 1, that Plaintiff sold from March 31, 2012, to the date of that Order; the Court further directed Plaintiff to deposit, on a monthly basis until the conclusion of this case (or any supervening Order), ten percent of its customer invoiced price on all the Patterns that Plaintiff sells. (Id.)

On August 20, 2013, Plaintiff filed a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, asking the Court to make a final determination that it, not Defendant, owned the SATO pattern. (Docket Entry No. 72.) The next day, Plaintiff filed a Motion asking the Court to expedite the briefing schedule related to its Motion for Partial Summary Judgment. (Docket Entry No. 75.) The Court ordered Defendant to respond to the Motion to Expedite in an expedited fashion (Order of Aug. 21, 2013 (Docket Entry No. 76)), which Defendant did. (Docket Entry No. 77.)

The Court granted Plaintiffs Motion to Support Expedited Briefing Schedule on August 26, 2013. (Order of August 26, 2013 (Docket Entry No. 79).) Additionally, the Court modified the deposit Order to exclude income produced by the SATO pattern until that issue could be further resolved (Id.) Pursuant to that Expedited Briefing Schedule, Defendant filed a Response to Plaintiffs Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on September 6, 2013 (Docket Entry No. 82), and Plaintiff filed its reply on September 17, 2013. (Docket Entry No. 104.)

The Court therefore finds that the briefing process is complete and that the instant Motion' is ripe for resolution.

B. Factual Background

1. Initial Matters

The Local Rules constrict the facts on which the Court may rely in ruling on Motions for Summary Judgment. See N.D. Ga. R. 56.

In support of the Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, Plaintiff filed a Statement of Undisputed Material Facts (“PSMF”), as required by the Local Rules. (Docket Entry No. 74; N.D. Ga. R. 56.1 B(l) (“A movant for summary judgment shall include with the motion and brief a separate, concise, numbered statement of the material facts to which the movant contends there is no genuine issue to be tried. Each material fact must be numbered separately and supported by a citation to evidence proving such fact.”).) The Local Rules, preclude the Court from considering any statement therein that is “(a) not supported by a citation to evidence (including page or paragraph number); (b) supported by a citation to a pleading rather than to evidence; (c) stated as an issue or legal conclusion; or (d) set out only in the brief and not in the movant’s statement of undisputed facts.” N.D. Ga. R. 56.1B(1).

Defendant submitted a response (“DRPSMF”) as required by the Local Rules. (Docket Entry No. 86; N.D. Ga. [1256]*1256R. 56.1B(2)(a)2.) Along with their response, Defendant filed a Statement of Additional Material Facts (“DSAMF”) as permitted by the Local Rules. (Docket Entry No. 87; N.D. Ga. R. 56.1B(2)(b)3.) Plaintiff then filed a Response to DSAMF (“PRDSAMF”) as required by the Local Rules. (Docket Entry No. 105; N.D. Ga. R. 56.1B(3)4.)

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has observed: “Local Rule 56.1 protects judicial resources by Tnak[ing] the parties organize the evidence rather than leaving the burden upon the district judge.’” Reese v. Herbert, 527 F.3d 1253, 1268 (11th Cir.2008) (alteration in original) (quoting Alsina-Orbiz v. La-boy, 400 F.3d 77, 80 (1st Cir.2005)). Local Rule 56.1 “also streamlines the resolution of summary judgment motions by ‘focus[ing] the district court’s attention on what is, and what is not, genuinely controverted.’ ” Id. (alteration in original) (quoting Mariani-Colon v. Dep’t of Homeland Sec.,

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Bluebook (online)
32 F. Supp. 3d 1253, 2013 WL 8923524, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/us-vinyl-manufacturing-corp-v-colour-design-inc-gand-2013.