Thursday, November 19, 2015

Purchase of Accused Product Through Amazon.com Sufficient to Establish Personal Jurisdiction

The court denied defendant's motion to dismiss plaintiff's infringement action for lack of personal jurisdiction because plaintiff's employees' purchase of the accused product through Amazon was sufficient to establish jurisdiction. "It is undisputed that two Massachusetts residents purchased [defendant's] allegedly infringing product; that they purchased the product through Amazon.com; and that both individuals were employees of [plaintiff]. . . . At least in the context of interpreting state long-arm statutes, the Federal Circuit has consistently held that a patent infringer is subject to personal jurisdiction where it sells the allegedly infringing product. . . . Taking [plaintiff's] allegations as true, [defendant] offered the allegedly infringing product for sale in Massachusetts, at least two Massachusetts residents purchased the product, and [plaintiff] suffered 'economic loss' in Massachusetts because it 'los[t] business' here. . . . [Defendant] misconstrues the nature of its own activities in Massachusetts by comparing them with the actions of the defendants in the 'manipulative purchase' line of cases. In [those cases], the defendants sold their products only on their own websites; they did not place their products into the national stream of commerce through online retailers."

PetEdge,Inc. v. Fortress Secure Solutions, LLC, 1-15-cv-11988 (MAD November 17, 2015, Order) (Saylor, J.)

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