STEVEN J. McAULIFFE, District Judge.
Plaintiff, Intellitech Corporation, brings suit against defendants The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ("IEEE"), Erik Jan Marinissen, Kathryn Bennett, and Yvette Ho Sang for copyright infringement. Marinissen, Bennett and Ho Sang (collectively, the "Individual Defendants") have moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. As set forth herein, the Individual Defendants' motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction is granted.
When a defendant challenges the court's personal jurisdiction under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(2), the "plaintiff has the burden of establishing that jurisdiction over the defendant lies in the forum state."
In making a prima facie showing of jurisdiction, a plaintiff may not rely only on unsupported allegations in its pleadings.
The relevant facts, construed in the light most favorable to Intellitech, are as follows. Intellitech is a New Hampshire corporation with its principal place of business in Dover, New Hampshire. IEEE is a not-for-profit corporation, organized and existing under the laws of New York State, with corporate headquarters in New York, New York. Defendant Yvette Ho Sang is an IEEE Senior Manager, in IEEE's Risk and Licensing Department. She lives and works in New Jersey. Defendant Kathryn Bennett also works for IEEE as a Senior Program Manager, and lives and works in New Jersey. Defendant Erik Jan Marinissen is a citizen of the Netherlands and a resident of Belgium. Marinissen is not an employee of IEEE, but instead has volunteered his professional services since 1999; he is currently active in the organization in multiple capacities. Marinissen serves as an IEEE Fellow; he is on the editorial board of "IEEE Design & Test" magazine; and is a member of the IEEE Standards Association. Neither Ho Sang, Bennett nor Marinissen has ever travelled to New Hampshire for any business-related purpose.
IEEE promulgates technical standards relating to electrical and electronic issues. IEEE's standards are developed collaboratively by working groups comprised of expert volunteers in the relevant field. Industry volunteers participate in meetings that are generally conducted remotely by conference call, either telephonically or via conferencing software (like WebEx). They draft and review position pieces, and create and review presentations made by other group members. Group meetings are typically held weekly or biweekly. Working group members do have access to IEEE's copyright policies.
IEEE owns and operates a dedicated, password-protected website for each working group. Those websites are called "grouper sites." The grouper sites act as a repository for the group's working materials, including drafts of standards, as well as other information working group participants might want other group members to review and consider. Working group members also routinely distribute such materials by email within the working group. Once finalized, adopted standards are published by IEEE and made available to IEEE members and the general public.
Bennett has administrative oversight responsibilities for IEEE's working groups; she works with between 10 and 20 working groups at any one time. In that capacity, she oversees and maintains IEEE's grouper sites. Bennett is not responsible for drafting or contributing to the content of any standards (drafts, revisions or final versions). The record concerning Ho Sang's role with respect to the working groups is less clear. Intellitech alleges that Ho Sang oversees and instructs IEEE working groups regarding IEEE policies; defendants seemingly do not dispute that allegation, but Ho Sang does assert that she did not review any of the draft standards or working materials at issue in this suit.
Beginning in late 2013, Intellitech CEO Christopher Clark participated in working group P1838. That working group was tasked with designing a new standard for "Test Access Architecture for Three-Dimensional Stacked Integrated Circuits." The P1838 grouper site, and all content submitted to the site, was hosted on a server located in New Jersey, with backup replication in Arizona for disaster recovery purposes. Bennett had administrative oversight responsibilities for the P1838 working group.
The P1838 working group was comprised of over 50 people from several different states and nine foreign countries. These individuals were divided into subgroups called "tiger teams." Each tiger team met weekly, and the entire P1838 working group met biweekly. Meetings were held via conference call, most often via WebEx. Marinissen chaired the P1838 working group, and, in that capacity, participated as a member of all tiger teams.
Mr. Clark was a member of Tiger Team 1, along with 13 other volunteers, including at least one other New Hampshire resident. Clark served as the scribe for Tiger Team 1, and, beginning in July 2014, served as its chair. Clark developed Intellitech's position piece on how serial access and pipeline registers should be managed by a 3D standard, which was entitled "Clause for a Pipeline" (the "Work").
As Tiger Team 1 discussions proceeded, Clark refined the Work, accepting some feedback from group members, but rejecting other feedback. Clark created 20 different iterations of the Work over time, presenting from New Hampshire each week and explaining the rationale for Intellitech's position. When Clark shared an iteration of the Work with the Tiger Team on the grouper site or by email, he sent the document in a secure Adobe Acrobat format PDF file that contained an "Intellitech" watermark. The file could not be edited by group members.
On April 14, 2014, Marinissen emailed Clark, requesting a Microsoft Word version of the Work, so that he could make his suggested edits directly on the document. Clark emailed Marinissen a Microsoft Word version of the Work. Marinissen subsequently made suggested edits, changed the watermark from "Intellitech" to "IEEE," and circulated his edited version of the Work (still in Microsoft Word format) to Tiger Team 1 group members.
Clark objected immediately to Marinissen's actions. He halted Tiger Team 1 meetings until the copyright issue was resolved. On September 2, 2014, Clark wrote a letter to IEEE's General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, complaining of Marinissen's actions and asserting Intellitech's position that those actions constituted infringement of Intellitech's copyright in the Work. On September 11, 2014, when Marinissen attempted to schedule a Tiger Team 1 meeting, Bennett emailed the team, indicating that the team would not meet until the copyright issue was addressed by IEEE.
In early October of 2014, Clark again wrote to IEEE's General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, demanding that IEEE remove all copies of Intellitech's Work from its servers. Counsel for IEEE responded to Clark's letter on November 14, 2014, expressing IEEE's position that Clark and/or Intellitech did not own a copyright in the piece, but agreeing nonetheless to remove it from the P1838 website and all other IEEE websites. Clark personally verified that all copies of the document were removed from the IEEE servers, and Intellitech took no further action. Tiger Team 1 was formally disbanded in December of 2014.
In February of 2015, the P1838 working group held a WebEx meeting in which Bennett and Ho Sang participated from their offices in New Jersey. During the meeting, Bennett and Ho Sang explained IEEE's general copyright policies to the working group. Intellitech's Work was not discussed during that meeting.
Months later, a new P1838 working group, called Tiger Team 4, was formed. Tiger Team 4 included two New Hampshire residents, Brian Turmelle and Craig Stephan, both of whom are Intellitech employees. At a Tiger Team 4 meeting in December of 2015, Marinissen and another group member presented a draft document entitled "TT4_Rules." The TT4_Rules document bore a notation indicating "Copyright© <year> IEEE," but purportedly contained material copied directly from Intellitech's "Clause for a Pipeline" work. The TT4_Rules document was uploaded to the IEEE P1838 grouper site, and emailed to Tiger Team 4 team members, including Turmelle and Stephan, who received the emails in New Hampshire. Bennett also received an emailed copy of the TT4_Rules document.
Intellitech contends that IEEE's preparation, distribution and display of the derivative work was done under the "administrative oversight" of Bennett, and with Marinissen acting as chair of the P1838 working group. Based on the foregoing, Intellitech asserts a claim for copyright infringement against IEEE, Marinissen, Bennett and Ho Sang.
The Individual Defendants argue that Intellitech cannot show that they are subject to personal jurisdiction in New Hampshire. First, they argue, Intellitech has not alleged specific facts from which it could be found that Bennett or Ho Sang infringed the copyright, in New Hampshire or elsewhere. Second, defendants argue, Intellitech cannot satisfy the requisite jurisdictional test with respect to any Individual Defendant, since the only New Hampshire-related fact in the case is Intellitech's own presence here. Intellitech disagrees.
Because the claim arises under federal law, the court's inquiry into whether it may exercise personal jurisdiction over the Individual Defendants is distinct from the inquiry applicable in diversity cases. "In a federal question case, `the constitutional limits of the court's personal jurisdiction are fixed . . . not by the Fourteenth Amendment but by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment."
Because Intellitech does not identify a federal statute that authorizes national service of process upon the Individual Defendants, it must demonstrate that these defendants were served in accordance with Rule 4(k)(1)(A), which requires service in a manner consistent with New Hampshire's long-arm statute. The New Hampshire long-arm statute's reach is coextensive with the Fourteenth Amendment.
"The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that a defendant "have certain minimum contacts with [the forum state] such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend `traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.'"
Intellitech asserts that specific jurisdiction over the individual defendants exists in this case. "Specific jurisdiction allows a court to hear a particular case as long as `that case relates sufficiently to, or arises from, a significant subset of contacts between the defendant and the forum.'"
As the Supreme Court recently emphasized, the "`minimum contacts' analysis looks to the defendant's contacts with the forum State itself, not the defendant's contacts with persons who reside there."
Our court of appeals has established a tripartite inquiry for assessing the existence of specific jurisdiction.
As set forth herein, Intellitech has failed to show that the Individual Defendants purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of conducting business in New Hampshire. Therefore, the court need not address the first and third prongs of the specific jurisdiction inquiry.
"The function of the purposeful availment requirement is to assure that personal jurisdiction is not premised solely upon a defendant's `random, isolated, or fortuitous' contacts with the forum state."
Intellitech's briefing is not entirely clear, but it appears that it has identified the following forum State "contacts" by the Individual Defendants: Marinissen received an emailed copy of the Work from Clark in New Hampshire. Marinissen emailed a derivative of the Work to the members of the Tiger Team 1 working group, including at least one New Hampshire resident (in addition to Clark). Marinissen emailed a derivative of the Work a second time to members of Tiger Team 4, including at least two New Hampshire residents, and uploaded that derivative to the IEEE website, where it could be accessed by members of the P1838 working group, including New Hampshire group members. Finally, because Intellitech is located in New Hampshire, the copyright infringement occurred in New Hampshire, and Intellitech suffered damage in New Hampshire when its copyright was infringed.
Intellitech relies on
Intellitech's reliance on
Second,
Finally, and critically,
134 S. Ct. at 1125;
With the foregoing in mind, the court moves to consider the Individual Defendants' contacts with the forum State, and whether those contacts are sufficient to establish that the Individual Defendants "engaged in any purposeful activity related to the forum that would make the exercise of jurisdiction fair, just or reasonable."
Rather than pointing to evidence that would support a finding that either Ho Sang or Bennett purposefully availed themselves of the benefits and protections of New Hampshire law, plaintiff instead seems to suggest that because Bennett and Ho Sang are directly or vicariously liable for copyright infringement (based on their purported supervision and facilitation of the allegedly infringing activities), that ought to suffice for jurisdictional purposes. In other words, Intellitech's argument seems to be that, because Ho Sang and Bennett committed copyright infringement and knew that Intellitech was located in New Hampshire, they have purposefully availed themselves of the forum because it was foreseeable that their infringement would cause injury to Intellitech in New Hampshire. As discussed above, that argument falls short.
Ho Sang, Intellitech argues, "was involved with the copyright policies applicable to the P1838 working group." Pl.'s Mem. in Support of Opp. to Motion to Dismiss at 9. Bennett purportedly "exercised `administrative oversight'" over the P1838 group when the derivative work was copied to IEEE's grouper sites, and emailed to P1838 group members.
Intellitech's argument relating to Ho Sang and Bennett's purported vicarious copyright infringement fares no better.
The court observed that the plaintiff had failed to allege any wrongful act that the CEO had personally committed against plaintiff in the forum State that would justify the exercise of specific jurisdiction over him. With respect to the letters pertaining to copyright infringement, and the CEO's failure to remove copyrighted material from the website, the court noted that "Plaintiff does not allege that [the CEO] committed those actions in or directed to his forum."
So too, here. Because plaintiff points to no evidence suggesting that Ho Sang or Bennett purposefully availed themselves of conducting business in New Hampshire, plaintiff has failed to make a showing that the court may exercise personal jurisdiction over Ho Sang or Bennett.
Such contacts, however, constitute the sort of "random, isolated, or fortuitous" contacts that the Supreme Court has found inadequate to give rise to personal jurisdiction. There is nothing in the record that suggests that those limited contacts with a few New Hampshire residents were the result of any purposeful efforts by Marinissen to specifically target New Hampshire residents. Of course, only a very few New Hampshire residents received Marinissen's emails, and only a few had to access the password-protected P1838 grouper site.
The limited contacts set forth by Intellitech are insufficient to warrant the conclusion that Marinissen purposefully availed himself of the privilege of conducting business in this forum, or that he should have reasonably foreseen the possibility that he would be haled into court here.
For all these reasons, Intellitech has not set forth facts adequate to satisfy the purposeful availment prong of the personal jurisdictional analysis with respect to the Individual Defendants.
Because plaintiff fails to satisfy the purposeful availment test, the court lacks specific personal jurisdiction over the Individual Defendants. Therefore, the Individual Defendants' motion to dismiss (document no. 20) is granted.
Turmelle's receipt of an emailed copy of the derivative work in New Hampshire does not establish that the purported infringement occurred in New Hampshire. Indeed, if Intellitech's argument were correct, that would mean that the infringement occurred in every state where a Tiger Team 4 team member resides. And, under Intellitech's argument, defendants would therefore be subject to the personal jurisdiction of the courts in every one of those states. Such a result would fall far short of traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.
Moreover, the law is unsettled with respect to the situs of infringement. As a leading treatise on copyright explains:
5 Patry on Copyright § 17:158 (2016).