WATSON MUSIC GROUP, LLC. v. FLAVOR GOD LLC

CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedAugust 28, 2025
Docket2:24-cv-10582
StatusUnknown

This text of WATSON MUSIC GROUP, LLC. v. FLAVOR GOD LLC (WATSON MUSIC GROUP, LLC. v. FLAVOR GOD LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
WATSON MUSIC GROUP, LLC. v. FLAVOR GOD LLC, (D.N.J. 2025).

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

: WATSON MUSIC GROUP, LLC D/B/A : QUADRASOUND MUSIC, : Civil Action No. 24-10582 (SRC) : Plaintiff, : : OPINION & ORDER v. : : FLAVORGOD LLC AND SHREDZ : SUPPLEMENTS LLC, : : Defendants. :

CHESLER, District Judge This matter comes before the Court on a motion for default judgment, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55(b), by Plaintiff Watson Music Group, LLC d/b/a Quadrasound Music (“Quadrasound” or “Plaintiff”) as to Defendants FlavorGod LLC (“FlavorGod”) and Shredz Supplements LLC (“Shredz”) (collectively, “Defendants”), (Dkt. No. 12), (the “Motion for Default”). For the reasons that follow, the Motion for Default will be GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY On November 19, 2024, Plaintiff filed a complaint (“Complaint”) asserting one claim against both Defendants for direct copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501. (Dkt. No. 1 (“Compl.”) ¶¶ 40–47.) The Complaint also seeks an award of actual or, upon Plaintiff’s election, statutory damages, an order enjoining Defendants from future infringing uses of Plaintiff’s works, an award of attorneys’ fees and costs, and pre-judgment interest. (Id. at 6–7.) On February 18, 2025, Plaintiff filed a motion for an enlargement of time and for an order authorizing alternate service of process on Defendants (“Alternate Service of Process Motion”). (Dkt. No. 5.) Plaintiff’s Alternate Service of Process Motion explained Plaintiff’s efforts to serve each Defendant and sought the Court’s authorization to serve Defendants via the email addresses

listed on Defendants’ active websites and serve Defendant Shredz via certified mail to an address Plaintiff found for Shredz in the records of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. (See generally id.) On February 19, 2025, Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor granted Plaintiff’s Alternate Service of Process Motion. (Dkt. No. 6.) Plaintiff filed two certificates of service the following day, certifying that Defendant FlavorGod was served a copy of the Summons, Complaint, and Exhibits via email, (Dkt. No. 7), and Defendant Shredz was served a copy of the Summons, Complaint, and Exhibits via email and certified mail, (Dkt. No. 8). To date, neither Defendant has appeared in the action. On April 8, 2025, Plaintiff requested the Clerk of the Court to enter the default of Defendants for failure to answer, move, or otherwise plead. (Dkt. No. 9.) The Clerk entered an

entry of default on the docket as to Defendants FlavorGod and Shredz that same day. After seeking an extension of time to move for the entry of default, Plaintiff filed its Motion for Default against Defendants on July 14, 2025. (Dkt. No. 12 (“Mot.”).) Through the Motion for Default, Plaintiff primarily seeks (1) an entry of default judgment in favor of Plaintiff against Defendants; (2) a statutory damages award of $10,000 under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(1); (3) an award of Plaintiff’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs in the amount of $5,725.50 under 17 U.S.C. § 505; (4) an award of post-judgment interest under 28 U.S.C. § 1961; and (5) an order enjoining Defendants from any infringing use of any of Plaintiff’s works under 17 U.S.C. § 502(a). (Id. at 15.) Plaintiff also seeks that the Court maintain jurisdiction over any matter pertaining to its judgment and seeks any other relief the Court deems just. (Id.) II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND This dispute arises out of Defendants’ alleged unauthorized copying, storing, and/or making available of Plaintiff’s copyrighted material on Defendants’ Facebook account. (Compl.

¶¶ 3–4.) Plaintiff owns the rights to certain musical works that it licenses for commercial use. (Id. ¶ 2.) In 1996, “Jay McGown, Nathaniel Orange p/k/a Lemonhead, and Van Bryant p/k/a 69 Boyz authored a musical work titled ‘Space Jam’” (the “Musical Work”). (Id. ¶ 11.) The Musical Work was registered with the United States Copyright Office (“USCO”) on May 1, 1997 under Registration No. PA-844-835 and is an “original, creative work.” (Id. ¶¶ 12, 41.) Plaintiff acquired all rights to the Musical Work by way of written agreement on July 30, 2019. (Id. ¶ 13.) Defendants own and operate a social media account on Facebook named “@ShredzSupplements” (the “Account”). (Id. ¶ 3.) Plaintiff alleges that the Account is associated with Defendants because Defendant FlavorGod “is listed as the responsible party for the Account”

and the Account is named for Defendant Shredz. (Id. ¶¶ 16–18.) Plaintiff alleges that Defendants “have exclusive access to post content” on the Account and that Defendants use the Account to promote their business and brands “whereby Defendants financially benefit[].” (Id. ¶¶ 19–20.) On or around October 16, 2015, Defendants posted a “discernable excerpt of the Musical Work on the Account as part of a social media post.”1 (Id. ¶ 14.) Plaintiff alleges that it “first

1 Plaintiff alleges that the social media post was available at the following URL: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1057750480926316, but that URL now displays a notice that “This Video Isn’t Available Anymore” and states, “The link may be broken or the video may have been removed. You can explore more videos or try logging into facebook.com and then visiting the link again.” observed and actually discovered the Infringement on March 13, 2024.” (Id. ¶ 15.) Attached to the Complaint is a “screengrab of the Account including the post where the Musical Work was made available.” (Id. ¶ 14.) The screengrab shows a URL address of “https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1057750480926316” in the top left-hand corner. The

screengrab also shows what appears to be an October 16, 2015 video post from a “Shredz Supplements” account titled, “The ULTIMATE Butt-Builder!” (Id., Ex. 1.) The caption of the video includes the following text: “Build Those Glutes FAST! By Shredz and Ainsley Rodriguez.” (Id.) The video appears to be 14 seconds long and has 877 likes, 76 comments, and 38,000 views as of the time Plaintiff took the screenshot of the Account webpage. (Id.) There is a comment on the video that says, in part, “our song![,]” but there is no other indication in the exhibit as to the audio used in the 14-second clip. (See id.) Plaintiff alleges “upon information and belief” that Defendants “copied, stored, [and] distributed without license or permission” Plaintiff’s Musical Work on the Account “to be performed publicly by means of a digital audio transmission,” which infringed Plaintiff’s exclusive

rights in the copyrighted work. (Compl. ¶ 21.) Plaintiff did not license Defendants the right to use the Musical Work, nor has it assigned any exclusive rights in the copyright to Defendants. (Id. ¶ 42.) Plaintiff alleges that Defendants’ infringement “is an exact copy of a discernable portion of Plaintiff’s Musical Work that was copied and made available by Defendants for public performance on the Account.” (Id. ¶ 22.) Plaintiff also alleges that upon information and belief, Defendants took an active role in creating and posting content to the Account as well as monitoring the content on the Account. (Id.

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WATSON MUSIC GROUP, LLC. v. FLAVOR GOD LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watson-music-group-llc-v-flavor-god-llc-njd-2025.