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Jurisdiction
It can be cold in Minnesota ...
Personal Jurisdiction arising out of your Web Site
 The World Wide Web is just that - World Wide. As the operator of
a web site you may wish to know that depending upon the nature
of your site you may be subjecting
yourself to the jurisdiction of every State in which you make your site available.
Since all Web sites, without considerable effort to restrict the site, are
available to individuals in all States and in fact throughout
the world, by the very nature
of the Internet, you may be subject to the jurisdiction of numerous different
States and indeed countries.
There are almost as many theories used by the courts to deal with this issue
of growing importance as there are cases dealing with the issue. In general,
there are a few common threads.
Trademark Cases
If the dispute is over an alleged trademark infringement arising
out of the operation of the site, and the operator has actually
transacted business with
residents
of the State, a finding of jurisdiction is likely. In short, with a few exceptions,
if you infringe on a trademark with your web-site and you have profited from
that contact, pack your bags be-cause you will likely be defending that suit
in the Trademark owner’s home State. In at least one case, accessibility
alone, without conducting business, was held sufficient contact with the
State. Maritz, Inc. v. CyberGold, Inc. , 947 F. Supp. 1328 (D. Mo. August
19, 1996)
Furthermore, at least as to trademark disputes, if your site is specifically
targeted to residents of a particular State expect a finding of jurisdiction
in that State whether there have been sales to residents or not.
Non-Trademark Cases
As to non-trademark cases, you as a web-site operator are not subject to
jurisdiction for all purposes simply be-cause you maintain a web-site. For
ex-ample, in
McDonough v. Fallon McElligott, Inc. , 1996 U.S. Dist. Lexis 15139 (S.D.
Cal. August 5,
1996) it was held that a commercial web-sites accessibility to California’s
residents, without some-thing more, was insufficient to sustain personal jurisdiction
over the creator of the site in a suit that did not arise out of operation of
the site itself. However, in Jami R. Vitullo v. Velocity Powerboats Inc., et
al. , No. 97 C8745, 1998 U.S. Dist. Lexis 7120 (N.D. Ill. April 24, 1998) The
court found jurisdiction over out of State Web-site owners who de-signed and
manufactured a boat involved in an accident. The court held that making the owner’s
site available to residents of the State, providing an e-mail link to contact
the web-site owner concerning their products and providing information as to
the display of the boats at an in-State trade show together with the fact that
the owners sold the particular boat involved in the accident to a trade show
exhibitor that the owners knew would be marketing it’s boats at the
in-State trade show was sufficient to establish in-State personal jurisdiction
in spite
of the fact that there was no evidence that there was any sale in the State
through the web-site itself.
The jurisdictional dangers are, however most particularly pointed out by
Minnesota v. Granite Gate Resorts, Inc. , State of Minn. Dist. Crt., Ramsey
County, Court
File No. c6-95-7227, 568 N.W. 2d 715 (Dec. 11, 1996) aff'd No. C6-97-89,
576 N.W. 2d 747 (Minn. Ct. App. Sept. 5, 1997) In this case, the court held
that
placing an advertisement on a web site accessible to Minnesota citizens was
sufficient contact with Minnesota to subject a non-resident web master to
jurisdiction in
Minnesota. Ultimately, any determination of jurisdiction will be fact specific
and will depend upon the nature of the claim being asserted and the laws
of the jurisdiction considering the issue. You may wish to consider having
your
attorney
draft into your service or sales agreement a statement of applicable law
that also sets an agreed jurisdiction for any disputes arising out of your
business
dealings.
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