United States Ninth Circuit

In a copyright infringement action concerning certain styles of boots, district court's dismissal of a Washington company's action against an Arkansas retailer for lack of personal jurisdiction is reversed where: 1) applying Washington's long-arm statute, the retailer was subject to personal jurisdiction in Washington even though its only relevant contact with the state was a claim that it willfully violated a copyright held by a Washington corporation; 2) the plaintiff made a prima facie showing that the retailer purposefully directed its activities at the forum state because it engaged in intentional acts expressly aimed at Washington, causing harm that it knew was likely to be suffered in that state; and 3) the retailer's alleged infringement of plaintiff's copyright, and its knowledge of both the existence of the copyright and the forum of the copyright holder, was sufficient "individual targeting" to satisfy the "express aiming" requirement.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/17/2012
• Published 12/17/2012

Judges

• Bybee

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel