Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Declaratory Judgment

This, unfortunately, is not a do-it-yourself matter.

An out-of-state party can (and often must) sue in the defendant's home state.

Thus, you'll need to respond to the papers you received. The Summons should specify the time to respond, which can differ depending on whether you're in State or Federal court.

Be careful... your time to respond can be as little as 20-21 days.

Re: Declaratory Judgment

It's possible that you were served with a declaratory judgment -- but more likely you are mistaken, or are mis-describing, the papers served on you. Was it, perhaps, a "complaint for declaratory judgment" and not a judgment? One starts a lawsuit; the other is an end product of a completed lawsuit!

If you were served with a summons and complaint for a lawsuit filed and pending in an out-of-state court, you need to decide two things (at least) very quickly, and act before the time limit specified in the summons.

The first thing you need to decide is whether you can live with the relief requested by the plaintiff. If this is a suit for declaratory relief alone, and you have read and understood what the court is being asked to declare and don't dispute it, or losing the dispute is truly not important to you, then perhaps your better strategy is to ignore the suit and allow the judgment to be had. Be careful, however; if the plaintiff is asking for other relief such as money damages or an injunction, you probably oughtn't ignore the suit, because if you don't defend, the plaintiff will get everything it asked for.

The second decision to make is whether jurisdiction in the other state is proper. If it is improper, it is up to you to convince the court that it lacks jurisdiction over the matter. Keep in mind that often jurisdiction of a case can be had in any one of several states, because the basis of jurisdiction can be one of several facts. The list of factors that might confer jurisdiction upon the courts of a given state for a given matter is fairly long, and can include where the contract was written, where it was to be performed, where a defendant resides, where the accident occurred, the parties' selection by specifying the state of jurisdiction in a contract, where real property which is the subject of the litigation is located, wherever a business has substantial operations, and so on.

If you dispute jurisdiction, your lawyer will prepare, file and serve a "motion to quash service of process" or similar paper disputing Washington's right to hear the case. The paper needs to be prepared, filed and served by an attorney licensed to practice in Washington, and the court will probably then hold a hearing at which the attorneys will argue the jurisdiction issue and the court will rule on its own jurisdiction.

The other thing your Washington lawyer might decide to do is admit jurisdiction and proceed by filing and serving an answer.