Mob Entertainment, Inc. v. The Partnerships, No. 25 C 01581 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 9, 2025) (Coleman, J.).
Judge Coleman granted in part and denied in part plaintiff Mob Entertainment’s motion for default judgment in this Schedule A case involving the video game Poppy Playtime. The Court’s decision highlights the importance of providing sufficient evidence to support statutory damage requests.
Mob Entertainment sought $50,000 in trademark infringement statutory damages and another $50,000 for copyright infringement statutory damages against a defaulting eBay seller. The Court found the requested relief “entirely, and unnecessarily, overbroad.”
On the trademark claims, the Court denied damages entirely. The allegedly infringing product was labeled “New Hot Selling Smiling Critters Poppy Doll Horror Doll Plush Toy” on eBay, with no use of plaintiff’s registered trademarks – POPPY PLAYTIME, BOXY BOO and MOMMY LONG LEGS – in the listing. Without the trademarks appearing in the product listing, the Court found no likelihood of consumer confusion.
The copyright claim fared only slightly better. While the Court found infringement of one copyrighted image (CH3 CatNap), it reduced the statutory damages from the requested $50,000 to just $1,000. The Court emphasized that Mob Entertainment provided minimal evidence—only one sale to its own investigators—and no information about:
- Duration of infringing activity
- Defendant’s profits from infringement
- Defendant’s estimated sales volume
- Plaintiff’s lost revenue
- Value or reputation of plaintiff’s marks
The Court noted that “statutory damages must ‘bear some relation’ to actual damages” and that “the amount of harm that the infringer inflicts goes to the amount of damages.” With evidence of only one infringing sale, the Court found no support for the requested $50,000 award.
The Court also rejected Mob Entertainment’s request to freeze all of defendant’s financial accounts indefinitely, allowing only the transfer of funds necessary to satisfy the $1,000 judgment.