KATHLEEN B. BURKE, Magistrate Judge.
This case is before the undersigned on a discovery dispute. Plaintiff Fuse Chicken LLC ("Plaintiff" or "Fuse Chicken") alleges in its Complaint that Defendant Amazon.com, Inc. ("Defendant" or "Amazon") has engaged in both direct and contributory infringement of Plaintiff's trademarks for charging cables that Plaintiff designs and manufactures and that are sold on Defendant's website.
Having considered the positions and arguments of the parties presented both during a telephone conference with counsel on May 23, 2018, and in their Joint Status Report submitted on June 2, 2018 (Doc. 47),
During the telephone conference with counsel, Amazon's counsel based its position on Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay, Inc., 600 F.3d 93 (2d Cir. 2010). Amazon's counsel contended that, under Tiffany, it cannot be held contributorily liable, and therefore should not be required to provide discovery, as to any time period before it received a specific notice of infringement from Plaintiff, an event that did not occur until 2016, nor can it be held liable as to any products beyond the 11 as to which Plaintiff provided such specific notice. Amazon also contends that it cannot be held liable for direct infringement prior to Fall 2016.
Neither Tiffany, nor cases citing it, including cases decided in this Circuit, is as limited as Amazon's counsel contends. In Tiffany, the Second Circuit noted that contributory trademark infringement "is a judicially created doctrine" and applied a test stated by the Supreme Court in Inwood Laboratories, Inc. v. Ives Laboratories, Inc., 456 U.S. 844 (1982), i.e., whether a service provider accused of contributory infringement "`continues to supply its [service] to one whom it knows or has reason to know is engaging in trademark infringement.'" The Second Circuit held that defendant's general knowledge that trademark infringement was occurring on its website was not sufficient to establish liability. Rather, "[s]ome contemporary knowledge of which particular listings are infringing or will infringe in the future is necessary." 600 F.3d at 107. Notably, the Second Circuit did
The Sixth Circuit has also followed the Inwood Laboratories test. In Coach, Inc. v. Goodfellow, 717 F.3d 498, 505 (6th Cir. 2013), the Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff rights holder in a case charging the owner and operator of a flea market with contributory trademark infringement based on sales of infringing goods by vendors doing business at the flea market. 717 F.3d at 499-500. Evidence that the defendant knew or should have known of the infringing sales consisted of letters he received from the plaintiff and from a prosecutor as well as by raids of the flea market by law enforcement.
Coach does not hold that evidence that a defendant knows or has reason to know that a third party to whom the defendant provides a service is engaging in trademark infringement is limited to information provided by the rights holder. Indeed, the Sixth Circuit's discussion not only of the facts before it but also of other cases is to the contrary.
Accordingly, the undersigned finds that Amazon may not limit its responses to discovery to the time period following Plaintiff's 2016 notice to Amazon of infringement, nor may it refuse to provide discovery with respect to products sold under some of the 23 ASINS assigned to Plaintiff's products on the basis that Plaintiff did not include all of the ASINs in its notice of infringement. This Order is limited to the questions relating to time period and products raised in Plaintiff's Notice and does not address any other issues, including other issues pertaining to specific discovery requests.
IT IS SO ORDERED.