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Turkish Company Must Be Allowed Discovery In Effort to Show Jurisdiction Lies in U.S.
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The Turkish holder of the copyright on the video game “Crazy Jump 3D” is claiming that a company in the Eastern European Republic of Belarus is infringing with its game, “Cannon Shot!” The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the plaintiff is entitled to jurisdictional discovery. |
By a MetNews Staff Writer
A District Court judge erred in dismissing an action by a Turkish company that claims its copyrighted video game “Crazy Jump 3D” is infringed by a Belarusian company’s game, “Cannon Shot!,” the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held Friday, saying the plaintiff was entitled to jurisdictional discovery.
“The question of jurisdiction in the Internet age is not well-settled,” a memorandum opinion says, giving the green light to discovery because it might establish a basis for personal jurisdiction in the action brought by Good Job Games (“GJG”) action against SayGames (“SG”).
The memorandum opinion—signed by Circuit Judges M. Margaret McKeown and Jacqueline H. Nguyen, along with Superior Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District of Columbia, sitting by designation—relates that the plaintiff is seeking discovery of such matters as the number of downloads of “Cannon Shot” in the United States, revenue derived from those downloads, and efforts to publicize it here.
“In a number of our recent decisions regarding personal jurisdiction and Internet-based companies, we have made significant reference to the type of information that GJG seeks in discovery,” the opinion notes.
Chen’s Order
In his order dismissing the action, District Court Judge Edward M. Chen of the Northern District of California identified GJG’s claim to jurisdiction being here as being based on Apple, Google, and Facebook being based in California. SayGames uses Apple’s and Googles’s marketplaces and advertises its product on Facebook.
Chen said in his May 7, 2020 order dismissing the action:
“The relationship between SG and California is attenuated and merely coincidental….SG utilized Apple and Google because they arguably have a virtual monopoly on the channels in which developers can distribute application-based software—not because they have offices in California. GJG has not identified anything unique about California that caused SG to target this forum state. In other words. SG did not target California: it targeted Apple and Google, which happened to be headquartered in California.”
30 Percent Figure
The judge noted that “although GJG claims that SG does substantial business in California—of SG’s total worldwide sales, only 30% of Cannon Shot! on the Apple App Store are from the United States.” Seeking an order altering the judgment, GJG pointed out that the 30 percent figure applied to downloads, not sales; Chen responded on June 22, 2020:
“The error is not material to the analysis and conclusion reached by this Court.”
Friday’s opinion came in Good Job Games v. SayGames, LLC, 20-16123.
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