Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Amazon vs. John Does
Amazon vs. John Does
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON
AT SEATTLE
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9 AMAZON.COM, INC., a Delaware corporation,
No. 2:19-cv-1445
10 Plaintiff,
COMPLAINT
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v.
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JOHN DOES 1–50,
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Defendants.
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15 I. INTRODUCTION
17 brands in the world. John Does 1-50 (“Defendants”) operate an unlawful advertising scheme
19 generate fees from affiliate networks and online advertisers. Defendants’ scheme harms
20 Amazon, the advertisers who pay fees for Defendants’ fraudulently generated traffic, and the
21 numerous victims who receive Defendants’ emails and visit their websites.
22 2. Defendants are affiliate marketers who refer people to websites for money.
23 Broadly speaking, affiliates source traffic (i.e., people) for websites through a variety of means,
24 including, relevant to this case, email campaigns. The affiliate then refers this traffic to an
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1 Defendants’ emails heavily use Amazon’s trademarks, and often contain an offer for an
2 Amazon gift card. Defendants generally send these emails from email addresses designed to
3 deceive victims into believing they are from Amazon, including amazon@, prime@, and
4 primememberbonus@. Defendants intentionally design their emails to entice victims to click
5 the link in the email.
6 4. By clicking the link in Defendants’ emails, victims are routed to a website that
7 contains a purported “survey.” The survey often greets the victim as “Amazon Shopper.” Like
8 the email, this survey uses Amazon’s trademarks and promises a “reward” for a victim’s
9 participation. After answering questions that relate to Amazon and its business, the victim is
10 referred to other websites to claim the “reward.” However, there is no “reward,” and victims
11 are, instead, directed to an advertiser’s website where they can purchase a product that has no
12 relation to Amazon. Defendants monetize this traffic using accounts with multiple affiliate
13 networks through which they refer the fraudulent traffic.
14 5. As a result of Defendants’ scheme, Defendants are liable to Amazon for
15 trademark infringement, false designation of origin and association, false advertising, and
16 trademark dilution. Amazon brings this lawsuit to stop Defendants’ unlawful scheme and hold
17 them accountable for the harm they have caused.
18 II. PARTIES
19 6. Amazon is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Seattle,
20 Washington. Through its subsidiaries, Amazon owns and operates the Amazon.com website
21 and equivalent international websites.
22 7. The true identities of Defendants are not presently known to Amazon. On
23 information and belief, Defendants are individuals and entities working in active concert to
24 knowingly and willfully run the scheme alleged in this Complaint, including by using
25 Amazon’s trademarks and brand to deceive victims.
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1 14. Amazon emails customers in connection with its products and services. As a
2 result, Amazon’s customers have come to expect to receive email communications from
3 Amazon, to use Amazon’s services online, and to interact with Amazon online.
4 15. Amazon’s products and services are readily identifiable to consumers around the
5 world because of the company’s substantial and years-long investment of time, money, and
6 other resources in Amazon’s brand, including the development of valuable intellectual
7 property.
8 16. Amazon exclusively owns numerous U.S. trademark registrations and pending
9 applications. These trademarks are a critical component of a consumer’s ability to readily
10 identify Amazon products and services.
11 17. As alleged in this Complaint, the following trademarks and service marks
12 (collectively “Amazon Trademarks”) were unlawfully used to further Defendants’ scheme:
13 Mark Registration No. (International
14 Classes)
AMAZON 2,738,837 (Int. Cl. 38)
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PRIME 5,218,535 (Int. Cl. 35)
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8 18. The Amazon Trademarks have been used exclusively and continuously by
9 Amazon, and have never been abandoned. The above U.S. registrations for the Amazon
10 Trademarks are valid, subsisting, in full force and effect, and many are incontestable pursuant
11 to 15 U.S.C. § 1065. The registrations for the Amazon Trademarks constitute prima facie
12 evidence of their validity and of Amazon’s exclusive right to use the Amazon Trademarks
15 19. A successful website requires “traffic,” which is a term used to describe people
16 who visit a website. Websites need traffic like physical retailers need visitors. Retail stores
17 need to generate foot traffic in order to generate sales opportunities, and similarly, websites
19 20. Affiliate marketing arose from the need to source relevant traffic for websites.
21 (i.e., the party who wants the traffic for their website).
22 21. An affiliate can source traffic through a variety of means, including, relevant to
24 22. The demand for traffic also spurred the growth of entities who help connect
25 affiliates and advertisers. One such example is an affiliate network, who acts as an
26 intermediary between the advertiser and the affiliates. In this model, an advertiser approaches a
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1 single network, who then contracts with one or more affiliates to provide the traffic desired by
2 the advertiser.
3 23. In email campaigns, like the ones at issue in this case, affiliates use domains that
4 are designed to redirect the user to another domain. These redirect domains do not render
5 content, such as a webpage, in a user’s browser and are generally not visible to the user.
6 Therefore, a user clicking on the link in the affiliate’s email sees only the final landing page,
7 but they may have passed through multiple redirect domains to get there.
8 24. These redirects are used for a variety of legitimate purposes, such as tracking the
9 traffic generated from a campaign and referring traffic to another company.
10 25. However, they can also be used for malicious purposes such as stripping the
11 traffic of information identifying its source.
12 26. In one common form of affiliate abuse, affiliates generate traffic by
13 impersonating well-known brands (such as Amazon). Affiliates exploit the brand’s recognition
14 with customers to entice victims to click through to a third-party advertiser’s website. The
15 affiliate is then paid for this fraudulent traffic.
16 27. The generation of traffic through the misuse of a brand’s intellectual property
17 harms everyone involved (except the affiliate). It harms the victim who is deceived by the
18 affiliate’s message or website, the brand whose intellectual property is associated with a
19 fraudulent campaign, and the advertiser who pays for the traffic.
20 C. Defendants’ Unlawful Affiliate Marketing Scheme
21 28. Defendants are engaged in a widespread, fraudulent marketing scheme that
22 bombards victims with unauthorized emails and abuses Amazon’s brand to generate traffic.
23 Defendants then profit from fees for this fraudulently generated traffic paid to them by affiliate
24 marketing networks and advertisers.
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32. Defendants send these emails from email addresses intended to deceive
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recipients into believing the emails are from Amazon. Defendants display email addresses such
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as: [email protected], [email protected],
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[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
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[email protected], [email protected],
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[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
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[email protected], [email protected], and
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1 [email protected].
2 33. Defendants registered the domains used to send these emails with four different
3 registrars: NameSilo, LLC1; Namecheap, Inc.2; Interweb Advertising, Inc. (dba
4 ProfileBuilder.com)3; and GoDaddy.com, LLC.4
5 34. In many cases, Defendants sent the emails using a different email address from
6 the one displayed in the “from” line of the email. Specifically, Defendants used a different
7 identifier and added a subdomain to the email address used to send the email. For example,
8 Defendants sent an email that displayed the sender’s email address as
9 “[email protected],” but the email was actually sent from the email address
10 “[email protected].” In these cases, Defendants hosted the
11 subdomains with a company called DedicatedNOW, Inc. at the IP address 65.181.124.184.
12 35. In other cases, Defendants sent the emails from domains (kerrog4.com,
13 bq275.com, and pl923.com) hosted with a company called BitAccel, LLC.
14 2. Defendants Refer Victims Through Multiple Domains
15 36. The purpose of Defendants’ emails is to entice victims to click a link contained
16 within the message. Upon clicking that link, the victim is redirected through a series of two or
17 three domains that do not render content in the victim’s browser, but serve to redirect the
18 victim to Defendants’ survey. These redirect domains also hide Defendants’ identities, protect
19 their infrastructure from being flagged as fraudulent, and help track the traffic.
20 37. Defendants have used a number of redirect structures to funnel traffic. In one
21 example, Defendants routed victims through 2934trk.com then ballerclick.com. In a second
22 example, Defendants sent victims through prematrinela.com, tboksolutions.com, or besttre.com
23 then to loadzucchetto.com. In yet a third example, Defendants directed traffic through
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For example: fasionsitejerseys.com, mtzautowreckin.com, diableimmortal.com, frnchest.com,
25 merilledgeinvestment.com, bellasfoward.com, and toyrunssweeps.com.
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For example: bq275.com, ok301.info, pl923.com, and keerog4.com.
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For example: icontecs.com.
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For example: fondationeaccess.com.
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1 47. After clicking “Start Survey” (or a similar button), victims are led through a
2 survey that uses the Amazon Trademarks and other indications of Amazon’s brand to deceive
3 victims into believing the survey originates with or is sponsored by Amazon.
4 48. Among other things, the survey prominently displays Amazon’s trademark
5 “amazon,” either stylized or in plain text, at the top of each page. The survey’s heading reads
6 “amazon 2019 Shopper Survey,” “amazon Shopper Survey,” or “Satisfaction Survey about
7 amazon.”
8 49. Defendants also intentionally mimic Amazon’s designs and color schemes,
9 including Amazon’s navy blue banner heading and gold rectangular buttons to indicate options
10 victims can select.
11 50. Defendants’ survey asks questions about shopping on Amazon such as, “Would
12 you recommend Amazon to a friend?,” “Are the products you buy from Amazon usually in-
13 stock at the time of purchase?” and “When is the last time you bought a product from
14 Amazon?” Defendants intentionally craft these questions to appear as though they are
15 collecting information for Amazon. However, the survey is not affiliated with Amazon, and
16 the victims’ responses are not provided to Amazon.
17 51. Partial screenshots of questions from three versions of Defendants’ survey are
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52. Below Defendants’ survey questions is a message that states the website is “not
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affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon” and does not have a right to use the trademarks. This
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disclaimer is in substantially smaller font than is used on the rest of the website.
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18 58. Similar to what happens after a victim clicked the link in the original email,
19 clicking one of Defendants’ “rewards” or “offers” sends the victim through a series of redirect
20 domains, one of which is a domain controlled by an affiliate network. The affiliate network
21 then redirects the victim to an advertiser where victims can purchase the product they selected
22 on Defendants’ “reward” page.
23 59. Four of the affiliate networks Defendants directed traffic to were Express
24 Revenue, Inc., Clickbooth.com, LLC, Traverse Data, Inc., and BDEX, LLC.
25 60. A second redirect domain Defendants used was nsxrenkz.com, which uses
26 Clickbooth.com, LLC’s Thrive Tracker services.
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1 V. CAUSES OF ACTION
2 FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION
3 Trademark Infringement (15 U.S.C. § 1114)
4 61. Amazon incorporates by reference the factual allegations contained in Section I–
5 IV as though set forth herein.
6 62. Defendants’ activities infringe the Amazon Trademarks.
7 63. Amazon advertises, markets, and distributes its products and services using the
8 Amazon Trademarks, and it uses these trademarks to distinguish its products and services from
9 the products and services of others in the same or related fields.
10 64. Because of Amazon’s long, continuous, and exclusive use of the Amazon
11 Trademarks, they have come to mean, and are understood by customers, users, and the public
12 to signify, products and services from Amazon.
13 65. Defendants use the Amazon Trademarks in commerce in a manner that is likely
14 to cause confusion, mistake, or deception as to the source, origin, or authenticity of Defendants’
15 emails and websites.
16 66. Further, Defendants’ activities are likely to lead the public to conclude,
17 incorrectly, that Defendants’ emails and websites originate with or are authorized by Amazon,
18 thereby harming Amazon and the public.
19 67. At a minimum, Defendants acted with willful blindness to, or in reckless
20 disregard of, their authority to use the Amazon Trademarks and the confusion that the use of
21 those trademarks would have on consumers as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation or
22 approval by Amazon of Defendants’ websites.
23 68. Defendants are subject to liability for the wrongful conduct alleged herein, both
24 directly and under various principles of secondary liability, including without limitation,
25 respondeat superior, vicarious liability, and/or contributory infringement.
26 69. As a result of Defendants’ wrongful conduct, Amazon is entitled to recover its
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1 actual damages, Defendants’ profits attributable to the infringement, and treble damages and
2 attorney fees pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a)–(b). The amount of money due from Defendants
3 to Amazon is unknown to Amazon and cannot be ascertained without a detailed accounting by
4 Defendants. Alternatively, Amazon is entitled to statutory damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(c).
5 70. Amazon is further entitled to injunctive relief, as set forth in the Prayer for
6 Relief below. Amazon has no adequate remedy at law for Defendants’ wrongful conduct
7 because, among other things: (a) the Amazon Trademarks are unique and valuable property; (b)
8 Defendants’ infringement constitutes harm to Amazon’s reputation and goodwill such that
9 Amazon could not be made whole by any monetary award; (c) if Defendants’ wrongful conduct
10 is allowed to continue, the public is likely to become further confused, mistaken, or deceived as
11 to the source, origin or authenticity of the infringing websites; and (d) Defendants’ wrongful
12 conduct, and the resulting harm to Amazon, is continuing.
13 SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION
14 False Designation of Origin and False Advertising (15 U.S.C. § 1125(a))
15 71. Amazon incorporates by reference the factual allegations contained in Section I–
16 IV as though set forth herein.
17 72. Amazon advertises, markets, and distributes its products and services using the
18 Amazon Trademarks, and it uses these trademarks to distinguish its products and services from
19 the products and services of others in the same or related fields.
20 73. Because of Amazon’s long, continuous, and exclusive use of the Amazon
21 Trademarks, they have come to mean, and are understood by customers, end users, and the
22 public to signify, products and services from Amazon.
23 74. Amazon has also designed distinctive and aesthetically pleasing displays, logos,
24 icons, and graphic images (collectively, “Amazon designs”) for its websites.
25 75. Defendants’ wrongful conduct includes the use of the Amazon Trademarks,
26 Amazon’s name, and/or imitation designs (specifically displays, logos, icons, and/or graphic
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1 designs virtually indistinguishable from the Amazon designs) in connection with Defendants’
2 commercial advertising or promotion.
3 76. Defendants have used, and continue to use, the Amazon Trademarks, Amazon’s
4 name, and/or imitation designs to deceive customers. On information and belief, Defendants’
5 wrongful conduct misleads and confuses their users and the public as to the origin and
6 authenticity of the goods and services advertised, marketed, offered or distributed in connection
7 with Amazon’s trademarks, name, and imitation visual designs, and wrongfully trades upon
8 Amazon’s goodwill and business reputation. Defendants’ conduct constitutes (a) false
9 designation of origin, (b) false or misleading description, and (c) false advertising, all in
10 violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a).
11 77. Defendants’ acts constitute willful false statements in connection with goods
12 and/or services distributed in interstate commerce, in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a).
13 78. Defendants are subject to liability for the wrongful conduct alleged herein, both
14 directly and under various principles of secondary liability, including without limitation,
15 respondeat superior, vicarious liability, and/or contributory infringement.
16 79. Amazon is further entitled to injunctive relief, as set forth in the Prayer for
17 Relief below. Defendants’ acts have caused irreparable injury to Amazon. The injury to
18 Amazon is and continues to be ongoing and irreparable. An award of monetary damages
19 cannot fully compensate Amazon for its injuries, and Amazon lacks an adequate remedy at law.
20 80. As a result of Defendants’ wrongful conduct, Amazon is entitled to recover its
21 actual damages, Defendants’ profits, and treble damages and attorney fees pursuant to 15
22 U.S.C. § 1117(a)–(b). The amount of money due from Defendants to Amazon is unknown to
23 Amazon and cannot be ascertained without a detailed accounting by Defendants.
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