Schedule A Defendants: Mass Joinder, Frozen Accounts, and the Rise of the SAD Scheme
By Casey Scott McKay ·
A single complaint names four hundred anonymous online sellers, is filed under seal, and produces an ex parte order within days that freezes every one of their marketplace accounts before any of them knows a case exists. Most never appear. The plaintiff takes default judgments with statutory damages and collects from the frozen funds. This article explains how that procedure works, where it came from, and why it has become the dominant form of trademark enforcement by volume in American federal courts. It walks through each moving part - permissive joinder under Rule 20, ex parte relief under Rule 65(b), the asset freeze and the Grupo Mexicano problem, statutory damages under Section 1117(c), and the Rule 65(d) orders that bind platforms who were never sued. It then presents the serious criticism, including the Federal Circuit decisions vacating injunctions in these cases for lack of notice, failure to analyze defendants individually, and overbreadth. It closes with what separates a legitimate program from an abusive one, and what a wrongly named seller should actually do.
IP and Technology > Internet | Article | Published 16 October 2023 - Updated 22 July 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. A single complaint names four hundred anonymous online sellers, is filed under seal, and produces an ex parte order within days that freezes every one of their marketplace accounts before any of them knows a case exists. Most never appear. The plaintiff takes default judgments with statutory damages and collects from the frozen funds. This article explains how that procedure works, where it came from, and why it has become the dominant form of trademark enforcement by volume in American federal courts. It walks through each moving part — permissive joinder under Rule 20, ex parte relief under Rule 65(b), the asset freeze and the Grupo Mexicano problem, statutory damages under Section 1117(c), and the Rule 65(d) orders that bind platforms who were never sued. It then presents the serious criticism, including the Federal Circuit decisions vacating injunctions in these cases for lack of notice, failure to analyze defendants individually, and overbreadth. It closes with what separates a legitimate program from an abusive one, and what a wrongly named seller should actually do.
Keywords: schedule a litigation · sad scheme · mass joinder rule 20 · ex parte tro · asset freeze counterfeiting · grupo mexicano · statutory damages 1117(c) · northern district of illinois · nba properties v hanwjh · personal jurisdiction online seller · abc corp v partnership · rule 65 notice · sealed complaint · platform account freeze · default judgment counterfeiting · severance and misjoinder · inform consumers act · marketplace seller defense · overbroad injunction
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