26 Mar 2009
When the World Wide Web enriches with one more web page those who post this page might become a subject to a personal jurisdiction. This happens because of the five following reasons: 1) trademark infringement; 2) trademark dilution; 3) unfair competition; 4) defamation; 5) execution of business operations . The first three reasons may occur when two, three or even more businesses operate within one country and one fine day they realize this co-existence. Their interests intersect because each of them wants to publish its own webpage with identical title. Defamation happens when somebody publishes defamatory information which injuries someone. Execution of business operations embraces any form of interaction with the internet users when it is possible to make business operations now or in future (on-line trading, gambling, auctions, in some cases toll-free phone numbers and e-mails etc).
In order not to become a subject of personal jurisdiction website owners should concern with the following: whether the web-page is an informative (“passive”) or an interactive one..
In order to have personal jurisdiction web-page owner must infringe or dilute trademark, compete unfairly, publish defamatory information or make some business actions.
The court is required to use long-arm jurisdiction when a person conducts activities in a forum state directly or through an agent but might not have any offices and employees there. In other words it happens when you distantly make some actions in a forum state which violate its law, while not physically present in this state.
Long-arm jurisdiction is an issue for those who create or post a web-page because it is available in the whole world.
The distinction between interactive and passive web-sites is that passive web-pages are those which only make some information available to people who search for it, interactive – when they conduct business transactions and soliciting business .
According to the Wolf article advertising on the Web alone is not enough to confer personal jurisdiction.
According to the task I have chosen the Official Re-election Site for President George W. Bush, which can be found at http://www.georgewbush.com/, to analyze whether its owner is a subject for personal jurisdiction. I have made the following conclusions: the owner of this web-site might become a subject of personal jurisdiction because of the following reasons: – it contains e-mail and mail addresses, contact phone and fax numbers (which can solicit business in future); – page owner will violate federal law (e.g. pass user’s personal information or receive targeted donations); – publish defamatory information about Mr. Cheney; – owner’s and one of his namesakes’ interests would cross in someway and the namesake would appeal to the court.
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