Collectanea J. Limited v. The P’ships & Uninc. Assocs. Identified on Schedule A, No. 24 C 3821, (N.D. Ill. Oct. 29, 2024) (Ellis, J.).
Judge Ellis, in this Schedule A Doe case, dismissed defendants who had not sold product into Illinois and dissolved the previously granted preliminary injunction against the remaining Doe defendants.
As an initial matter, the Court held that it lacked personal jurisdiction over the Doe defendants that had not been shown to have sold product into Illinois. It is not enough to have a website that offers to sell products into Illinois, in order to have personal jurisdiction over a party there must be proof of something more, for example sale of product into the state.
As to the remaining defendants, the Court reconsidered its preliminary injunction because the defendants had not appeared when it was granted and, therefore, had not been able to oppose it. Doe defendants failed to meaningfully challenge the validity of plaintiff Collectanea’s pictures of the steps to bead bracelets or necklaces. As a result, the Court treated the copyright registrations as prima facie evidence of copyright validity. Collectanea had shown a likelihood of success on the merits.
But the Court held that Collectanea could not show irreparable harm because Collectanea delayed between one year and nineteen months in bringing suit after the date of the proof of sales it filed with its papers, and could not justify the delay. The Court, therefore, dissolved the preliminary injunction. The Court also noted that there was no requirement that the Doe defendants had detrimentally relied upon Collectanea’s delay in order for the delay to void any irreparable harm that may have existed from a loss of goodwill.