Four Decades for Justice
September 03, 2008
On August 29, 2008, the United States District Court in Maryland dismissed the plaintiff’s complaint in Technology Patents LLC v. Deutsche Telekom AG, et al. on the ground that the Court lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendants. In this multi-party suit, the plaintiff alleged infringement of two patents relating to international text messaging (including SMS messaging) and sought to enjoin the defendants’ international text messaging operations and capabilities.
The Court found that the plaintiff had failed to establish that the foreign defendants have sufficient contacts with either the State of Maryland or the U.S. as a whole to permit jurisdiction over them under the laws of Maryland and the U.S. Constitution. In particular, the Court held that the foreign defendants do not do business or perform services in the U.S., rejecting the plaintiff’s argument that the defendants’ roaming agreements with domestic carriers were sufficient to establish jurisdiction. The Court also rejected the plaintiff’s contention that the foreign defendants’ websites and advertisements suggesting that their subscribers could obtain service in Maryland were sufficient to support personal jurisdiction over them. The Court was persuaded that any services performed for the foreign defendants’ subscribers in the U.S. were performed by domestic companies, and that any use of the services within the U.S. was initiated by the defendants’ subscribers, not by the foreign defendants themselves.
Cravath defended Tango S.A., Telia Danmark and NetCom AS in this matter, with a team led by partners John E. Beerbower and Stephen S. Madsen and associates Yani Indrajana Ho, Pierre J. Bouchard and Mihir Kshirsagar.
Celebrating 200 years of partnership. In 2019, we celebrated our bicentennial. Our history mirrors that of our nation. Integral to our story is our culture.
Attorney Advertising. ©2024 Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.