Surface Supplied Inc. v. Kirby Morgan Dive Systems, Inc.
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
2013 WL 2355446 (N.D. Cal.)
Surface Supplied Inc. (plaintiff), a Northern District of California corporation manufacturing diving gas analyzers and depth gauges engraved with a helmet image, advertised nationally on social media and in magazines but did not target any particular judicial district. After Kirby Morgan Dive Systems, Inc. (defendant) sent a cease-and-desist letter claiming trademark infringement, Surface sued in the Northern District for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement; Kirby then filed its own trademark suit in the Central District of California, where its facilities and most employees were located, and moved to dismiss Surface's Northern District suit.
Whether a corporate defendant subject to personal jurisdiction somewhere in a state can be deemed to reside in a judicial district within that state if its own contacts would not independently support personal jurisdiction were that district a separate state.