Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: ''challenging venue''

If you don't already have a lawyer, you should get one immediately, preferably a litigator who is competent in copyright law. Being sued is nothing to take lightly and can cost you a great deal of money if you don't respond appropriately in a timely manner.

That said, I am assuming you were sued in federal court, since copyright is under the jurisdiction solely of the federal courts. As for changing venue, yes you can always request this. To do so, you will need to "specially appear" in the California court to request this (or have a California attorney appear for you). "Specially appear" means you appear in court solely to challenge jurisdiction and not to respond to the case--doing so does not submit you to that court's jurisdiction. It is probably best to have an attorney do this for you, because if you inadvertently raise any defenses or discuss the facts of the case while you're in court, you have accepted the jurisdiction of the court in California and the case will remain in California for the duration of the case.

Re: ''challenging venue''

Actually it is jurisdiction you should be challenging, not venue. How does the CA court obtain personal jurisdiction over you? Did you advertise there? Sell offending material there? Somehow do some act in CA that entitles them to assert jurisdiction over you? Unless the answer to one of these is "yes," the CA court will not have the legal authority to proceed with your case if the jurisdictional issue is properly raised.

See International Shoe vs McGee. It is the landmark case in this area.

Re: ''challenging venue''

Depending on the facts of your case, you may be able to successfully challenge venue and/or jurisdiction, however, you must do so by timely appearing (even if specially appearing for the limited purpose of challenging venue and jursidiction) rather than ignoring the service of papers once you have become aware of the case.

In determining the issues of venue and jurisdiction in cases of infringement and unfair competition, the courts have looked not only to the State (or other Country, Province or local area) where the Defendant does business (and allegedly takes the infringing acts), but thay have also considered where the damage has occurred - (including States where the customers are being confused or misled, and/or where the Plaintiff is being harmed economically and/or by way of dilution to trademarks or other harm to celebrity status, goodwill, or reputation).

As this BBS is not a secure or appropriate place to make further specific recomendations and insamuch as we do not generally provide legal advice to parties other than our clients, we would invite you to call our offices at (949) 754-3048 or visit our websites: www.BrandXperts.com ; www.namesavers.net and/or www.copyrightpros.com for further information.

Anderson & Shippey

"Intellectual Property Solutions for the New Millennium" (Sm) - Offices in Irvine and San Francisco, California

Re: ''challenging venue''

In order to challenge jurisdiction, you will need to specially appear and raise the defense PRIOR to answering the complaint. Based upon the date of your initial post, your deadline to answer may have expired.

If you obtained an extension to respond, you still may have time to challenge jurisdiction. Were you under any contractual obligation with the Plaintiff that conferred jurisdiction in California? Did any of the infringing acts occur in the jurisdiction in which you are being sued? There may be other facts the Plaintiff is basing its claim of jurisdiction....

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