THOMAS W. THRASH, JR., District Judge.
The Plaintiff, Jysk Bed'N Linen as successor to Quick Ship Holding, Inc., d/b/a By Design Furniture ("Jysk" or the "Plaintiff"), has used the trade name By Design Furniture since 1990, and contends it holds a common law trademark in the name. The Plaintiff is a retailer of furniture that owns stores in Georgia, North Carolina, and New Jersey.
The Plaintiff contended it has used the bydesignfurniture.com trademark since approximately April 1999. The bydesignfurniture.com domain name, however, was registered in the name of the Defendant, Monosij Dutta-Roy ("Dutta-Roy" or the "Defendant"). The Defendant contended he has continually paid for and monitored that website address pursuant to an agreement between the Defendant's predecessor and the Plaintiff. That agreement, entered into between BazaarWorks, LLC, a company the Defendant was affiliated with, and By Design Furniture, a company the Plaintiff has since absorbed, purportedly stated that BazaarWorks would produce a custom website for By Design (the "Partnership Agreement").
The Defendant contended he is the owner of BazaarWorks, and contended that he executed the Partnership Agreement on behalf of BazaarWorks and that Kjell Bratengen executed it for the Plaintiff. (Dutta-Roy Aff. ¶¶ 2-5, 7). Bratengen denies the existence of the Partnership Agreement and Shashi Sonnad, a former employee of BazaarWorks, also denies the existence of the agreement. (Third Bratengen Aff. ¶ 2; Third Sonnad Aff. ¶ 3). The Defendant had produced a document entitled Partnership Agreement with the names of By Design and BazaarWorks, but it was unsigned and otherwise incomplete. (Dutta-Roy Aff. Ex. A).
The Plaintiff contended it hired Sonnad to maintained the bydesignfurniture.com website from its inception in 1999 through April 2012, and only learned that it did not hold the domain's registration when the Defendant let the registration expire on April 9, 2012. When the registration for the bydesignfurniture.com website lapsed, the Plaintiff demanded that the Defendant turn over the domain name. The Defendant refused and renewed his registration to the domain name on April 20, 2012. And on April 26, 2012, he registered the bydesignfurniture.org, bydesignfurnitures.com, and bydesign-furnitures.com domain names in his own name. (
The Plaintiff accordingly demanded that the Defendant turn over the domain names at issue and that the Court award damages pursuant to the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act ("ACPA"). The Defendant contended that his initial registration of the bydesignfurniture.com domain name was made before the ACPA went into effect, that there is at least an issue of fact as to whether "by design furniture" is a trade name or trademark associated with the Defendant, and that the Defendant's actions have been consistent with the Partnership Agreement.
The Plaintiff had filed two motions for summary judgment [Docs. 57, 58]. The first partial motion sought summary judgment on its claim under the ACPA. The second motion sought summary judgment on the Defendant's counterclaims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, quantum meruit, for an equitable accounting, and for attorney's fees. The Defendant is proceeding pro se. On March 31, 2013, the Court held a hearing and granted the Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Defendant from doing anything with the bydesignfurniture.com domain name that would restrict the public's access to it, from transferring ownership of the domain name to anyone other than the Plaintiff, and from otherwise altering the status quo. [Doc. 53]. The Defendant filed motions to delay summary judgment and to compel mediation, which the Court denied. [Docs. 37, 61]. On October 22, 2013 the Court granted the Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment [Doc. 57] and the Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment on the Defendant's Counterclaims [Doc. 58], for the reasons set forth in the Court's Order and Opinion [Doc. 69] and therein, further ordered the Defendant to turn over the registration of the domain names bydesignfurniture.com, bydesignfurniture.org, bydesignfurnitures.com, and bydesign-furnitures.com to the Plaintiff within fourteen (14) days of the date of the Order and Opinion [Doc. 69].
Thereafter, on November 5, 2013 the Defendant filed two motions, a motion to stay the Court Order issued on October 23, 2013, and a motion for reconsideration of the Court order issued on October 23, 2013 [Docs. 71, 72]. The Defendant, additionally on November 19, 2013, filed a Notice of Appeal [Doc. 76] as to the Order and Opinion [Doc. 69] and the Clerk's Judgment thereon [Doc. 70], the same day the Plaintiff had filed its Motion [Doc. 75] to Alter the Order and Opinion [Doc. 69] and the Clerk's Judgment thereon [Doc. 70].
On November 22, 2013, the USCA acknowledged the Defendant's Notice of Appeal [Doc. 76] and this case was appealed to the USCA-11
The Defendant, on December 18, 2013, filed another motion [Doc 84] to set aside the Order and Opinion [Doc. 69] and the Clerk's Judgment thereon [Doc. 70]. On January 6, 2014, the Plaintiff moved for an Order to Show Cause [Doc. 87] as to why the Defendant should not be held in contempt of the Order and Opinion [Doc. 69] and the Clerk's Judgment thereon [Doc. 70]. Two days later the Court ruled on the Plaintiff's motion to Alter [Doc. 75] and the Defendant's motion to set aside [Doc. 84], granting the former and awarding the Plaintiff $4,000 in statutory damages under ACPA, and denying the later for the reasons set for in the Court's Opinion and Order thereon [Doc. 88].
Consistent with the Defendant's litigiousness, the Defendant filed a notice of Appeal, his second, [Doc. 89] and a motion [Doc. 93] for reconsideration and to alter the Court's Opinion and Order [Doc. 88], on January 16, 2014. The Defendant's motion [Doc. 93] for reconsideration and to alter the Court's Opinion and Order [Doc. 88] was denied by the Court on February 26, 2014 for the reason set forth in the Court's Order [Doc. 96].
On March 5, 2014, the Court, after a hearing on the same day, issued the Court's Order [Doc. 98] on the Plaintiff's motion to Show Cause [Doc. 87], again ordering the Defendant to transfer the domain names, and awarding attorney fees to the Plaintiff in the amount of $2,150.00. The Order [Doc. 98] was subsequently vacated in part on January 29, 2018, [Doc. 134] as to the award of attorney fees to the Plaintiff consistent with the October 20, 2017 opinion of the USCA-11
On March 18, 2014, the Defendant filed his third notice of Appeal in this case [Doc. 101] appealing the Court's Order [Doc. 98].
On March 24, 2014, the Plaintiff filed its notice of non-compliance [Doc. 105] as the Defendant had still yet to obey the Court's Order to transfer the domain names [Doc. 98]. The following day the Court issued an Order to set a show cause hearing for April 4, 2014 as to why the Defendant should not be taken into custody immediately for contempt of court and willful failure to comply with Orders of this Court [Doc. 106]. On March 27, 2014 the Defendant filed his motion to stay the hearing [Doc. 108]. On April 4, 2014 the Defendant's motion to stay [Doc. 108] was denied by the Court [Doc. 110].
At the hearing on April 4, 2014, the Defendant was found in contempt of Court, was Ordered to be taken into custody, however the Defendant then transferred the domain names and the Court released the Defendant from custody [Doc. 111].
On May 5, 2015, despite the fact two appeals based upon three notices of appeal [Docs. 76, 89, 101] were now pending in the USCA-11
The notice of appeal of the Defendant [Doc. 101] was acknowledged by the USCA-11
On April 14, 2015, the Defendant's appeal [Doc. 69] in Case No. 13-15309-A was scheduled for oral argument before the USCA-11
On October 20, 2017, after the filing of numerous, extensive and unmerited motions in the USCA-11
On March 19, 2018, the Plaintiff filed its motion to amend the Plaintiff's Complaint [Doc. 141], seeking to terminate this litigation at the District Court level. In response, the Defendant on March 26, 2018 and April 12, 2018 filed, respectively, a motion for a conference [Doc. 142] and the Defendant's own motion to "amend complaint" [Doc. 143]. On July 19, 2017 the Defendant filed a motion for a temporary restraining order [Doc. 144] against a non-party which was seeking to foreclose on real property of the Defendant. On July 23, 2018 the Court ruled on each of the forgoing motions [Docs. 141, 142, 143, 144] granting the Plaintiff's motion to amend the Plaintiff's complaint, and denying the Defendant the relief sought by each of the Defendant's motions [Doc 145], directing counsel for the Plaintiff to submit a proposed final judgment in favor of the Plaintiff consistent with the prior Orders of the Court and the Court of Appeals. On July 24, 2018, Plaintiff filed its Amended Complaint [Doc. 146].
The standard for the grant or denial of summary judgment and the reasoning, opinion, and discussion concerning the grant of Plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment Under the ACPA [Doc. 57] are set forth in full in the Court's Order and Opinion dated October 22, 2013 [Doc. 69] and the same is incorporated within this Final Order as if fully set forth herein.
The standard for the grant or denial of summary judgment and the reasoning, opinion and discussion concerning the grant of the Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment on the Defendant's Counterclaims [Doc. 58] are set forth in full in the Court's Order and Opinion dated October 22, 2013 [Doc. 69] and the same is incorporated within this Final Order as if fully set forth herein.
The USCA-11
During the pendency of the appeal in the USCA-11
The USCA-11
The Defendant in this appeal raised a number of arguments challenging all of the Court's previous orders, as well as several state court garnishment actions, assigning error in all orders that have been entered in this case and contending that they were all reviewable in this appeal. As set forth above, the Defendant was wrong in his contention, and the USCA-11
The USCA-11
All Mandates of the USCA-11
The first being that, in its Complaint, the Plaintiff alleged facts and causes of action related to only the Defendant's registration of bydesignfurniture.com. The Plaintiff never amended its complaint to allege anything about the registrations of bydesignfurniture.org, bydesignfurnitures.com, or bydesign-furnitures.com, prior to moving for summary judgment. In light of Flintlock Const. Services, LLC 710 F.3d1221, 1227-28 (11
The second rational of the Plaintiff was to terminate this litigation, finally, with the Court. Addressing the issued raised by the USCA-11
The Plaintiff's motion to amend the Complaint was granted [Doc. 145] on July 23, 2018 and the next day the Plaintiff filed its Amended Complaint [Doc. 146].
It is apt and proper, now that this litigation has finally reached its termination in the Court, that the Court reiterates that the Defendant has throughout demonstrated a history of abusive litigation, including the filing of frivolous motions, has repeatedly ignored the Local Rules, and has openly, willfully, and without any justification defied Court Orders. It is only through the leniency of the Court, with respect to pro se defendants, that the Defendant did not find himself sanctioned for his abusive and egregious conduct. In light of the amendment of the Plaintiff's Complaint the Court finds that since all of the claims of the Plaintiff have been previously adjudicated, all of the counter-clams of the Defendant have been previously dismissed [Doc. 69], the Defendant having relinquished control of, and having transferred to Plaintiff the four domain names, and the Court and the USCA-11
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that this ORDER in conjunction with in the Court's ORDER AND OPINION dated October 22, 2013 [Doc. 69] (which is fully incorporated herein as if fully set forth) and as modified by the Court's OPINION AND ORDER dated January 8, 2014, awarding the Plaintiff $4,000 in statutory damages under ACPA [Doc. 88] is and shall be the FINAL ORDER of the Court.
There being no just reason for delay, pursuant to Rule 5(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Clerk is ordered to enter this Final Judgment forthwith and without further notice.
SO ORDERED.