Supreme Court Denies Certiorari in Expansive Ninth Circuit Personal Jurisdiction Case
Last summer, we reported that the Ninth Circuit expanded the “effects test” of personal jurisdiction against foreign copyright infringers in Mavrix Photo v. Brand Technologies. As we noted then, the Mavrix Photo decision represented an expansion of the Ninth Circuit’s (seemingly ever-changing) willingness to permit its district courts to exercise jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants, holding that an Ohio-based celebrity gossip website is subject to personal jurisdiction in California by virtue of that website’s “exploitation of the California market for its own commercial gain.”
This month, the Supreme Court denied the defendants’ petition for certiorari, leaving the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in place. At least until the next time the Ninth Circuit takes up the issue of personal jurisdiction, litigants will have an easier time bringing out-of-state defendants into western district courts.