Delaware Patent Litigation Report : Delaware Intellectual Property Lawyer & Attorney : Morris James Law Firm : Delaware Patent Litigation Report

The court considers defendants’ renewed motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction and improper venue following the conclusion of jurisdictional discovery.  Plaintiff is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in St. Louis.  The patents in suit relate to data and communications cables. Defendant LS Korea is a Korean manufacturer of, inter alia, the category 6 communications cables accused of patent infringement in this action.  Defendant LS America sells its cable products directly to customers or through non exclusive, independent sales representatives to regional distributors.  Neither defendant has any physical presence in Delaware.  Defendants never had any offices, employees, agents or bank accounts in Delaware.  Nor is there any evidence that defendants ever maintained any inventory, owned any property, executed any contract, performed any service or litigated any legal action in Delaware.  LS America, through its sales agent made at least four sales to Delaware customers.  While LS America did not specifically target Delaware it did not take any action to prevent future sales in Delaware.  Therefore, plaintiff has met both (c)(1) and (c)(4) of Delaware’s Long Arm Statute as to LS America.  However, it cannot show the same intent to serve the Delaware market by LS Korea since there is no evidence that LS Korea sent any cable to Delaware.  As for due process, there is no doubt that LS America placed the accused category 6 cables into the stream of commerce.  However plaintiff fails to show that LS America completed an act "purposefully directed toward the forum State.  LS America has not designed any products.  There is no indication that it advertises in Delaware and LS America has no office, agents, employees or property in Delaware.  Although LS America did provide warranties on the Delaware sales, there is nothing to indicate that the contact was regular.  Therefore, there is no jurisdiction as to LS America.  Plaintiff’s allegations of general jurisdiction over LS Korea must also fail.  There is no evidence that LS Korea sent any cable to Delaware and the warranties issued on the Delaware sales are not sufficient to confer jurisdiction.  Absent personal jurisdiction over defendants, the court finds that the interests of justice are satisfied by the transfer of the instant case to New Jersey.