Whaleco Incorporated v. TemuExpress.com

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedApril 1, 2024
Docket2:23-cv-02243
StatusUnknown

This text of Whaleco Incorporated v. TemuExpress.com (Whaleco Incorporated v. TemuExpress.com) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Whaleco Incorporated v. TemuExpress.com, (D. Ariz. 2024).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Whaleco Incorporated, No. CV-23-02243-PHX-MTL

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 TemuExpress.com, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 Plaintiff Whaleco Inc. owns and operates a popular e-commerce platform called 16 TEMU. After learning of websites allegedly infringing upon its registered TEMU marks, 17 Plaintiff filed this suit against the website domain names and the unknown individuals 18 managing the websites. The Court then issued a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) and 19 preliminary injunction (“PI”). Plaintiff’s Counsel served both upon then-third-parties 20 GoDaddy.com, LLC (“GoDaddy”) and Domains By Proxy, LLC (“DBP”). Shortly 21 thereafter, Plaintiff filed its First Amended Complaint naming GoDaddy and DBP as 22 defendants and bringing claims against them. (Doc. 26 ¶¶ 53-69.) 23 GoDaddy and DBP now move to dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). (Doc. 40.) 24 Additionally, Plaintiff, GoDaddy, and DBP request that the Court take judicial notice of 25 certain exhibits. (Docs. 42, 49.) The parties agree that the Court may take judicial notice 26 of most of the requested exhibits, and the Court will therefore take notice of those that are 27 agreed-upon. (Doc. 48 at 7 n.1; Doc. 57 at 2.) But GoDaddy and DBP object to two exhibits 28 proffered by Plaintiff: WhoIs registration records for the allegedly infringing domain 1 names and a public statement available on the ICANN website. (See generally Doc. 57.) 2 GoDaddy and DBP argue that Plaintiff offers these exhibits for the truth of the matter 3 asserted therein, which is inappropriate. (See generally id.) The Court need not rely on 4 either objected-to exhibit in this Order. 5 GoDaddy and DBP’s Motion to Dismiss is fully briefed. (Docs. 40, 41, 48, 56.) The 6 Court held oral argument on April 1, 2024. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant 7 the Motion. 8 I. FACTS 9 GoDaddy is a domain name registrar. (Doc. 26 ¶ 38.) Domain name registrars allow 10 individuals to purchase and register domain names for websites. (Id.) When a domain name 11 is purchased and registered, the purchaser is ordinarily identified as the “registrant” in a 12 publicly accessible database called WhoIs. (Id.) 13 Plaintiff alleges that DBP, an affiliate of GoDaddy, is a proxy service that allows 14 purchasers to keep their identities private.1 (Id. ¶ 39.) DBP does this, according to Plaintiff, 15 by assuming ownership of the domain name, listing itself as the “registrant” in the WhoIs 16 database, and then leasing the domain name back to the purchaser. (Id.) 17 Defendants , , , 18 , , and (the “Domain 19 Defendants”) were registered by Defendants John Does 1-20 (the “Doe Defendants”) 20 through GoDaddy. (Id. ¶¶ 11-18.) The Doe Defendants used DBP’s services to avoid 21 disclosing their identities on the WhoIs database. (Id. ¶ 19.) Before these domains were 22 deactivated, they materialized to websites purporting to be associated with TEMU. 23 (Id. ¶¶ 32-37.) 24 After learning about the allegedly infringing websites, Plaintiff notified GoDaddy 25 and DBP of its concerns. (Id. ¶ 41; Doc. 48 at 7.) At that time, GoDaddy did not disable 26 the domain names and DBP did not provide the contact information for the Doe 27 Defendants. (Doc. 26 ¶ 42.) Plaintiff moved ahead, filing its initial Complaint (Doc. 1) and

28 1 GoDaddy and DBP disagree that DBP is a proxy service. (Doc. 41 at 14; Doc. 56 at 6-7.) Resolution of that issue is not necessary to the Court’s analysis. 1 Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Order to Show Cause re: Preliminary 2 Injunction (Doc. 8). Plaintiff’s Counsel provided copies of the filings to GoDaddy and DBP 3 on the same date, October 27, 2023. (Doc. 26 ¶ 42; Id. at 38.) 4 Shortly thereafter, the Court granted Plaintiff’s Motion (Doc. 8) and issued the TRO. 5 (Doc. 13, as amended at Doc. 16.) Plaintiff’s Counsel sent a copy of the TRO to GoDaddy 6 and DBP on November 3, 2023. (Doc. 26 ¶ 43; Id. at 42.) The TRO required DBP to 7 “disclose to Plaintiff the identities and all contact information for those who registered the 8 [allegedly infringing domain names] (including, but not limited to, name, physical and 9 email addresses, and phone number(s)) and provide the same to Plaintiff within three (3) 10 business days from the date of service of this Order.” (Doc. 16 at 3.) 11 Plaintiff alleges that, on November 22, 2023, DBP informed Plaintiff’s Counsel that 12 DBP would not disclose the requested contact information. (Doc. 26 ¶ 44; Id. at 48-49.) A 13 week later, Counsel responded and further demanded the contact information; he also 14 provided a copy of the PI which again required DBP to disclose the contact information. 15 (Id. at 47-48; Doc. 48 at 8; Doc. 25 at 8.) Ultimately, DBP disclosed the contact information 16 on November 30, 2023, by hard copy. (Doc. 48 at 8 n.2.) 17 On December 4, 2023, prior to receiving the hard copy of the contact information, 18 Plaintiff filed its First Amended Complaint (Doc. 26). (Doc. 48 at 8 n.2.) Therein, Plaintiff 19 added claims against GoDaddy and DBP for violations of the Lanham Act. (Doc. 20 26 ¶¶ 53-69.) GoDaddy and DBP now move to dismiss the claims. (Doc. 40.) 21 II. LEGAL STANDARD 22 To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, “a complaint must contain sufficient 23 factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” 24 Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 25 544, 570 (2007)). A claim is facially plausible when it contains “factual content that allows 26 the court to draw the reasonable inference” that the moving party is liable. Id. At the 27 pleading stage, the Court’s duty is to accept all well-pleaded complaint allegations as true. 28 Id. Facts should be viewed “in the light most favorable to the non-moving party.” Faulkner 1 v. ADT Sec. Servs., Inc., 706 F.3d 1017, 1019 (9th Cir. 2013). “[D]ismissal . . . is proper if 2 there is a lack of a cognizable legal theory or the absence of sufficient facts alleged under 3 a cognizable legal theory.” Conservation Force v. Salazar, 646 F.3d 1240, 1242 (9th Cir. 4 2011) (internal marks omitted). 5 III. DISCUSSION 6 Plaintiff alleges that GoDaddy and DBP are liable for trademark infringement under 7 15 U.S.C. § 1114 and unfair competition and false designation of origin under 15 8 U.S.C. § 1125(a). The elements of both claims are the same. Lodestar Anstalt v. Bacardi 9 & Co. Ltd., 31 F.4th 1228, 1245 (9th Cir. 2022); see also Brookfield Commc’ns, Inc. v. 10 West Coast Ent. Grp., 174 F.3d 1036, 1067 n.8 (9th Cir. 1999). In either case, a plaintiff 11 must prove that they have ownership of a valid mark and that the defendant’s distribution 12 of the infringing content “is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive.” 13 Multi Time Mach., Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 804 F.3d 930, 935 (9th Cir. 2015) (quoting 14 Fortune Dynamic, Inc v.

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Whaleco Incorporated v. TemuExpress.com, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whaleco-incorporated-v-temuexpresscom-azd-2024.