Zhou

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

ANBANG GROUP HOLDINGS CO. Case No. 23-cv-00998-VC LIMITED, et al.,

Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO

DISMISS COUNTERCLAIMS

v. Re: Dkt. No. 136 HAIBIN ZHOU, et al., Defendants.

The motion to dismiss the counterclaims is granted. Dismissal is with prejudice. This ruling assumes familiarity with the facts, the applicable legal standard, and the arguments made by the parties. 1. The trademark infringement counterclaim fails because neither defendant has statutory standing to assert it. Neither owns the alleged trademark, and being a shareholder of the entity that does is not enough. Latham v. NVest SV, Inc., No. 20-16164, 2021 WL 5507389, at *1 (9th Cir. Nov. 24, 2021). The defendants suggest that dismissal would be improper because the counterclaim is compulsory. But whether a counterclaim is compulsory of course has no bearing on whether it is properly pled. 2. The Hobbs Act counterclaim fails because the statute does not directly create a private civil right of action. Abcarian v. Levine, 972 F.3d 1019, 1026 (9th Cir. 2020). Even if the defendants intended to assert a civil RICO claim based on…