Yeti Coolers, LLC v. The Individuals, Business Entities, and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A

District Court, S.D. Florida·Decided October 14, 2021·No. 0:21-cv-62008·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

_ Case No. 21-cv-62008-BLOOM/Valle YETI COOLERS, LLC, :

Plaintiff, V. THE INDIVIDUALS, BUSINESS ENTITIES, AND UNINCORPORATED ASSOCIATIONS IDENTIFIED ON SCHEDULE A, Defendants.

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR ENTRY OF PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION THIS CAUSE is before the Court upon Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction, ECF No. [7], (“Motion”). The Court has carefully considered the Motion, the record in this case, and the applicable law, and is otherwise fully advised. By the instant Motion, Plaintiff, YETI Coolers, LLC (“Plaintiff”), moves for entry of a preliminary injunction against Defendants,' for alleged violations of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1114 and 1125(a). The Court held a hearing by video conference on October 12, 2021, which was attended by counsel for Plaintiff only. During the hearing, Plaintiff directed the Court to evidence supporting the Motion for Preliminary Injunction. None of the Defendants formally responded to the Motion, nor have they made any appearance or filing in this case, either individually or through counsel. Because Plaintiff has satisfied the requirements for the issuance of a preliminary injunction, the Court grants the Motion.

! Defendants are the Individuals, Business Entities, and Unincorporated Associations identified on Schedule “A” hereto (collectively “Defendants”).

Case No. 21-cv-62008-BLOOM/Valle

1. FACTUAL BACKGROUND? | Plaintiff, YETI Coolers, LLC, is the registered owner of the following trademarks, which are valid and registered on the Principal: Register of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “YETI Marks”):

Trademark Registration Registration Date Class(es) / Good(s) Number

YETI 3,203,869 | January 30,2007 [IC 021 — Portable coolers

TUNDRA 4,083,930 | January 10,2012 JIC 021 - Portable coolers

ROADIE 4,083,932 | January 10,2012 |IC 021 — Portable Coolers

YETI TANK | 4818317 Septet 22, l1C 021 — Portable Coolers

RAMBLER 4,998,897 | July 12,2016 {IC 021 - Jugs

2 The factual background is taken from the Plaintiff's Complaint, ECF No. [1]. Plaintiffs Motion for Preliminary Injunction, ECF No. [7], and supporting evidentiary submissions. Plaintiff filed declarations and exhibits annexed thereto in support of its Motion for Preliminary Injunction. The declarations are available in the docket at the following entries: Declaration of Jeni Zuercher, ECF No. [7-1], Declaration of Stephen M. Gaffigan, ECF No. [7-3], and Declaration of Kathleen Burns, ECF No. [7-7].

HOPPER FLIP] 5.171.380 | March 28, 2017 [Ic 021 — Portable Coolers 2

HOPPER 5,232,872 June 27,2017 |IC 021 — Portable coolers

IC 021 - Beverageware; cups; drinking glasses; tumblers for use as drinking vessels; jugs; mugs; temperature-retaining drinking vessels; storage containers for household or domestic use, namely, vacuum RAMBLER 5,233,441 June 27,2017 |container for hot or cold food and drink; beer growlers; insulated food and drink containers; stainless steel tumblers for use as drinking vessels; stainless steel drinking glasses; stainless steel beverageware; drinking straws.

YETI HOPPER 5,329,935 | November 7, 2017 {IC 021 — Portable coolers

YETI 5,885,556 | October 15, 2019 |IC 016 — Lunch bags

HAUL 5,886,316 | October 15,2019 |IC 021 —Non-electric coolers

IC 021 — Insulated lunch boxes; lunch boxes; lunch bags not of D AYTRIP 5,893,053 October 22, 2019 |paper; insulated lunch bags not of paper; non-electric portable coolers

6,153,620 September 15, {IC 021 — Non-electric portable B ACKFLIP 2020 coolers

FLIP 6,200,636 | November!?, |1¢ 991 — portable coolers 2020

IC 021 - Buckets; plastic buckets; industrial buckets; utility buckets; ranger buckets; fishing buckets; household containers for food and beverages; containers for Y household or kitchen use; plastic ETI 6,211,352 | December 1, 2020 portable household cargo containers; portable non-electric water coolers; water dispensers; insulated water dispensers; portable beverage dispenser; handles specially adapted for beverageware See Declaration of Jeni Zuercher, ECF No. [7-1] at 4-5; ECF No. [1-2] (containing Certificates of Registrations for the YETI Marks at issue.) The YETI Marks are used in connection with the manufacture and distribution of quality goods in the categories identified above. See Declaration of Jeni Zuercher, ECF No. [7-1] at 4-5. Defendants, by operating commercial Internet websites and a supporting domain under Defendants’ respective domain names identified on Schedule “A” hereto (the “Subject Domain Names”), have advertised, promoted, offered for sale, or sold goods bearing and/or using what Plaintiff has determined to be counterfeits, infringements, reproductions and/or colorable imitations of the YETI Marks. See Declaration of Jeni Zuercher, ECF No. [7-1] at 10-14;

Declaration of Stephen M. Gaffigan, ECF No. [7-3] at 2; Declaration of Kathleen Burns, ECF No. [7-7] at 4. ! Although each Defendant may not copy and infringe each YETI Mark for each category of goods protected, Plaintiff has submitted sufficient evidence showing that each Defendant has infringed, at least, one or more of the YETI Marks. See Declaration of Zuercher, ECF No. [7-1] at 10-14. Defendants are not now, nor have they ever been, authorized or licensed to use, reproduce, or make counterfeits, reproductions, or colorable imitations of the YETI Marks. See Declaration of Zuercher, ECF No. [7-1] at 10, 13-14. Counsel for Plaintiff retained Invisible Inc (“Invisible”), a licensed private investigative firm, to investigate the promotion and sale of counterfeit and infringing versions of YETI branded products by certain Defendants and to obtain the available payment account data for receipt of funds paid to these Defendants for the sale of counterfeit versions of YETI branded products. See Declaration of Jeni Zuercher, ECF No. [7-1] at 12; Declaration of Stephen M. Gaffigan, ECF No. [7-3] at 2; Declaration of Kathleen Burns, ECF No. [7-7] at 3. Invisible accessed the Internet websites operating under the Subject Domain Names for Defendant Numbers 1-25 and placed orders via these Subject Domain Names for the purchase of various products, all bearing and/or using counterfeits and infringements of at least one of YETI’s trademarks at issue in this action and requested each product to be shipped to Invisible’s address in the Southern District of Florida. See Declaration of Kathleen Burns, ECF No. [7-7] at 4 and Comp. Ex. 1 thereto, ECF Nos. [7-8 through 7-9]. Each order was processed entirely online and following the placement of the orders, Invisible received information for finalizing payment? for the various products ordered via PayPal, Inc. (“PayPal”) to Defendants’ respective PayPal 3 Invisible was instructed to not transmit the funds to finalize the sale for the orders for most of the Defendants so as to avoid adding money to Defendants’ coffers. See Declaration of Kathleen Burns, ECF No. [7-7] at 4, n.1.

□ Case No. 21-cv-62008-BLOOM/Valle

accounts, as identified on Schedule “A” hereto! (See id.) Additionally, Invisible captured the PayPal Merchant Identification Numbers (“Merchant IDs”) identified as part of the source code and account data for these Defendants. At the conclusion of the process, the detailed web pages Invisible captured and downloaded? reflecting the YETI branded products promoted and offered for sale via the Subject Domain Names were sent to YETI’s representative, Jeni Zuercher, for inspection. See Declaration of Stephen M. Gaffigan, ECF No. [7-3] at 2; Declaration of Jeni Zuercher, ECF No. [7-1] at 12.

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Yeti Coolers, LLC v. The Individuals, Business Entities, and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A, (S.D. Fla. 2021).

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