UPDATE – VICTORY – May 21, 2014: Working with local counsel, The Pietz Law Firm removed these two cases to federal court last week. Today, after the cases were assigned to a new judge, the court issued an Order Dismissing All Defendants Other Than Doe No. 1, on the Court’s own motion. It is really gratifying to see the courts raising the issue of swarm joinder on their own.
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The Pietz Law Firm recently started receiving quite a few phone calls about Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Does 1-50, pending in the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for the County of Marion, Docket No. 14C13823.
A copy of the complaint in this case reveals that the plaintiff is suing not for copyright infringement, which is par for the course in BitTorrent litigation, but rather for state trademark infringement. The Pietz Law Firm is one of the few firms in the country that has dealt with cases like this–where plaintiffs try to avoid federal court by dressing their copyright infringement suits up in state law clothing–before. Prenda tried a similar tactic in Illinois, and Morgan Pietz helped lead the charge against state court discovery in that case.
Together with local counsel admitted in Oregon, Morgan Pietz is likely going to be getting involved in this case. There are a number of unusual elements to this particular action, and this does seem like the kind of case where motions to quash and similar objections filed at the outset may be successful.
If you recently received a letter from your ISP about Voltage Pictures in Oregon, The Pietz Law Firm would like to hear from you. As to your options generally in cases like these, check out this article by Morgan Pietz.
UPDATE 4/25/14:
Voltage also has a couple new “swarm joinder” federal copyright infringement cases going in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon:
| 6:2014-cv-00300 | Voltage Pictures, LLC et al v. DOE-215 |
| 6:2014-cv-00301 | Voltage Pictures, LLC et al v. DOE-21 |
