The District Court for the Northern District of California granted motion to dismiss without leave to amend in Williams v. Life’s Rad and Cafepress.com, 2010 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 46763 (N.D. Cal. 2010) after finding that Plaintiff failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
In this case, CafePress.com provides goods and services over the internet which allows users, also known as shopkeepers, to upload their custom-made designs to be printed on merchandise, also offered by CafePress, such as t-shirts, posters, coffee mugs and other merchandise. Shopkeepers then sell their custom-made merchandise on the internet through online shops, also provided by CafePress. The Plaintiff and Defendant Life’s Rad are shopkeepers on the CafePress site. The Defendant ,Life’s Rad, notified CafePress of the Plaintiff’s use of the terms “Life is Rad” to sell his merchandise and that such use infringed its trademark rights in the mark LIFE’S RAD. In accordance with their Terms of Use agreement, after confirming the trademark registration, CafePress removed infringing material from the alleged infringer's online shopping site in compliance with its shopkeeper and terms of service agreements, which authorizes CafePress to prohibit the sale of goods that it believes “infringes the rights of a third party, including, without limitation, copyrights [and] trademarks,”. Plaintiff, acting pro se, filed suit against Defendants Life’s Rad and Cafepress.com (CaféPress) alleging that Defendants had violated the DMCA, Lanham Act, his constitutional right to due process, and engaged in unfair competition.
The court ultimately concluded that the Plaintiff failed to state a claim and that the complaint could not be cured by amendment. Read the court's reasoning below:
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