Opinion ID: 3037942
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Purposeful Direction: United States

Text: Even if Pebble Beach is unable to show purposeful direction as to California, Pebble Beach can still establish jurisdiction if Caddy purposefully directed his action at the United States. This ability to look to the aggregate contacts of a defendant with the United States as a whole instead of a particular state forum is a product of Rule 4(k)(2).3 See Glencore Crain Rotterdam B.V. v. Shivnath Rai Harnarain Co., 284 F.3d 1114, 1126 (9th Cir. 2002). Thus, Rule 4(k)(2) is commonly referred to as the federal long-arm statute. Id. 3 Rule 4(k)(2) provides in whole, If the exercise of jurisdiction is consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, serving a summons or filing a waiver of service is also effective, with respect to claims arising under federal law, to establish personal jurisdiction over the person of any defendant who is not subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of general jurisdiction of any state. 7682 PEBBLE BEACH v. CADDY The exercise of Rule 4(k)(2) as a federal long-arm statute requires the plaintiff to prove three factors. Id. First, the claim against the defendant must arise under federal law. Id. Second, the defendant must not be subject to the personal jurisdiction of any state court of general jurisdiction. Third, the federal court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction must comport with due process. Id. Here, the first factor is satisfied because Pebble Beach’s claims arises under the Lanham Act. And, as established above, the second factor is satisfied as Caddy is not subject to personal jurisdiction of California, or any state court. [11] That leaves the third factor—due process. The due process analysis is identical to the one discussed above when the forum was California, except here the relevant forum is the entire United States. And, as with the foregoing analysis, our resolution here depends on whether Caddy’s actions were purposefully directed at the United States. Pebble Beach contends that the “purposeful direction” requirement is satisfied under the Calder “effects test” because Caddy’s operation is expressly aimed at the United States. Pebble Beach makes four arguments. First, Pebble Beach claims that because Caddy selected a “.com” domain name it shows that the United States was his “primary” market and that he is directly advertising his services to the United States. Second, Pebble Beach asserts that his selection of the name “Pebble Beach” shows the United States is his primary target because “Pebble Beach” is a famous United States trademark. Third, Pebble Beach asserts that Caddy’s intent to advertise to the United States is bolstered by the fact that Caddy’s facilities are located in a resort town that caters to foreigners, particularly Americans. Finally, Pebble Beach asserts that a majority of Caddy’s business in the past has been with Americans. [12] As before, Pebble Beach’s arguments focus too much on the effects prong and not enough on the “something more” PEBBLE BEACH v. CADDY 7683 requirement. First, following the rationale articulated in Cybersell, Rio Properties, and Panavision, we conclude that the selection of a particular domain name is insufficient by itself to confer jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant, even under Rule 4(k)(2), where the forum is the United States. The fact that the name “Pebble Beach” is a famous mark known world-wide is of little practical consequence when deciding whether action is directed at a particular forum via the world wide web. Also of minimal importance is Caddy’s selection of a “.com” domain name instead of a more specific United Kingdom or European Union domain. To suggest that “.com” is an indicator of express aiming at the United States is even weaker than the counter assertion that having “U.K.” in the domain name, which is the case here, is indicative that Caddy was only targeting his services to the United Kingdom. Neither provides much more than a slight indication of where a website may be located and does not establish to whom the website is directed. Accordingly, we reject these arguments. [13] This leaves Pebble Beach’s arguments that because Caddy’s business is located in an area frequented by Americans, and because he occasionally services Americans, jurisdiction is proper. These arguments fail for the same reasons; they go to effects rather than express aiming. Pebble Beach’s arguments do have intuitive appeal—they suggest a real effect on Americans. However, as reiterated throughout this opinion, showing “effect” satisfies only the third prong of the Calder test—it is not the “something more” that is required. In Bancroft, we stated that foreseeable effects alone are not sufficient to exercise jurisdiction, that “something more” is required and that “ ‘something more’ is what the Supreme Court described as ‘express aiming’ at the forum state.” 223 F.3d at 1087 (internal citations omitted). The “something more” additional requirement is important simply because the effects cited may not have been caused by the defendant’s actions of which the plaintiff complains. Here, although Caddy may serve vacationing Americans, there is not a scintilla of evidence indicating that this patronage is related to 7684 PEBBLE BEACH v. CADDY either Caddy’s choice of a domain name or the posting of a passive website. Accordingly, we find no action on the part of Caddy expressly directed at the United States and conclude that an exercise of personal jurisdiction over Caddy would offend due process.