MAILED copyright closing report with certified copy of minute order dated 10/21/2024 to Registrar, Washington DC.

MINUTE entry before the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani: Pursuant to Plaintiff's notice of voluntary dismissal 13, this matter is dismissed without prejudice as to all defendants pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i) with each party to bear its own costs and fees. All pending motions, hearings, and deadlines are stricken. Civil case terminated. Mailed notice

NOTICE of Voluntary Dismissal by Shenzhen Pujing Silicone Products Co., Ltd and request to terminate case.

MINUTE entry before the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani: The Court has reviewed the plaintiff's memorandum on joinder 10 and determines, within its discretion, that plaintiff has failed to satisfy its burden to show that joinder of 70 defendants is proper in this matter under Fed. R. Civ. P. 20(a)(2). See Estee Lauder Cosms. Ltd. v. Partnerships & Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A, 334 F.R.D. 182, 185 (N.D. Ill. 2020) (noting that "[plaintiff] bears the burden of demonstrating that joinder is proper"); H-D U.S.A. v. Partnerships & Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule "A", 2021 WL 780486, at *2 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 1, 2021) ("The Seventh Circuit has recognized the broad discretion that district courts have in remedying misjoinder, so long as the court's decision avoids unnecessary harm to the parties."). The Court observes that plaintiff's memorandum includes a fair amount of conclusory language about a logical relationship among all defendants but not much, if any, facts to actually support that relationship. Beyond alleging that the 70 defendants are infringing upon plaintiff's copyrighted designs, plaintiff claims only generally that joinder is proper because: defendants use nondescript seller aliases; no credible information regarding defendants' physical address is provided; defendants show evidence of market coordination by "using the same advertising and marketing strategies to target consumers while attempt to evade enforcement"; the e-commerce stores at the seller aliases "often share unique identifiers, such as templates with common design elements that intentionally omit any contact information or other information for identifying Defendants or other Seller Aliases they operate or use"' the e-commerce stores at the seller aliases include other notable common features such as use of the same registration patterns, accepted payment methods, check-out methods, keywords, advertising tactics, similarities in price and quantities, the same incorrect grammar and misspellings, the use of the same text and images and/or multiple similar if not identical store names to offer the infringing products; and the unauthorized products for sale by the seller aliases bear similar irregularities and indicia of being counterfeit to one another, suggesting that the unauthorized products were manufactured by and come from a common source and that defendants are interrelated. Dkt. 6 at ¶ ¶ 11-17; Dkt. 8-2 at ¶ 11. But plaintiff provides no specific examples of such shared features or similar irregularities and instead the record contains Exhibit 1 to the First Amended Complaint (which includes 237 pages of screenshots from defendants' listings) without providing the Court with specific additional information from those listings that might in fact support joinder in this matter. See Dkt. 7-2. It is not this Court's job to sift through hundreds of pages of materials to look for a relationship between the defendants. Moreover, "defendants with nearly identical product descriptions may in fact share no ties, with each simply copying the same description from elsewhere." Estee Lauder Cosms. Ltd., et al. v. The Partnerships, et al., No. 20-cv-00845 (N.D. Ill. June 22, 2020) (Lee, J.) (Doc. 40 at 9); see also Estee Lauder, 334 F.R.D. at 188. Within its discretion, on this record, the Court finds that plaintiff has failed to meet its burden to show that joinder is proper here. See Art Ask Agency v. Individuals, Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, Partnerships & Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule "A", 2021 WL 5493226, at *2 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 23, 2021) (holding similar conclusory statements do not support joinder); H-D U.S.A., 2021 WL 780486, at *3 (finding joinder improper where plaintiff failed to allege "any nonconclusory facts to form a basis for a conclusion that the defendants' conduct overlaps enough to warrant joinder"). Accordingly, plaintiff's motion for temporary restraining order 8 is denied without prejudice. Plaintiff's motions for leave to file under seal [2, 7, 9] are granted. Plaintiff is granted leave to file an amended complaint with a smaller subset of defendants along with a memorandum explaining specifically why each defendant is properly joined to all of the others by 10/18/2024. Mailed notice

DECLARATION of Pete Wolfgram regarding memorandum in support of motion 10 Establishing Joinder

附件：

1:(Exhibit 6)
2:Exhibit 5
3:Exhibit 4
4:Exhibit 3
5:Exhibit 2
6:Exhibit 1

MEMORANDUM ESTABLISHING THAT JOINDER IS PROPER

MOTION by Plaintiff Shenzhen Pujing Silicone Products Co., Ltd to seal document SEALED MOTION by Plaintiff Shenzhen Pujing Silicone Products Co., Ltd 8

SEALED MOTION by Plaintiff Shenzhen Pujing Silicone Products Co., Ltd

附件：

1:(Declaration in Support of Motion)
2:Supplement Brief in Support of Motion

SEALED MOTION by Plaintiff Shenzhen Pujing Silicone Products Co., Ltd

附件：

1:(Exhibit Schedule A)
2:Exhibit 2
3:Exhibit 1
4:Text of Proposed Order Proposed Order to Seal Documents

First AMENDED complaint by Shenzhen Pujing Silicone Products Co., Ltd against The Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A

附件：

1:(Exhibit Exhibit List)
2:Exhibit 2
3:Exhibit 1
4:Exhibit Schedule A

MAILED copyright report to Registrar, Washington DC.

CLERK'S NOTICE: Pursuant to Local Rule 73.1(b), a United States Magistrate Judge of this court is available to conduct all proceedings in this civil action. If all parties consent to have the currently assigned United States Magistrate Judge conduct all proceedings in this case, including trial, the entry of final judgment, and all post-trial proceedings, all parties must sign their names on the attached Consent To form. This consent form is eligible for filing only if executed by all parties. The parties can also express their consent to jurisdiction by a magistrate judge in any joint filing, including the Joint Initial Status Report or proposed Case Management Order.

CASE ASSIGNED to the Honorable Sunil R. Harjani. Designated as Magistrate Judge the Honorable Keri L. Holleb Hotaling. Case assignment: Random assignment. (Civil Category 3).

ATTORNEY Appearance for Plaintiff SHENZHEN PUJING SILICONE PRODUCTS CO., LTD by Xiyan Zhang

CIVIL Cover Sheet

SEALED MOTION by Plaintiff SHENZHEN PUJING SILICONE PRODUCTS CO., LTD

附件：

1:(Exhibit 2)
2:Exhibit 1 - Part 3
3:Exhibit 1 - Part 2
4:Exhibit 1 - Part 1
5:Exhibit Schedule A
6:Text of Proposed Order Proposed Order

COMPLAINT filed by SHENZHEN PUJING SILICONE PRODUCTS CO., LTD ; Jury Demand. Filing fee $ 405, receipt number AILNDC-22378796.

附件：

1:Exhibit 2
2:Exhibit 1
3:Exhibit Exhibit List
4:(Exhibit Schedule A)