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Act 103: Our Motion to Dismiss the Copyright Claim Is Denied

On October 4, 2002, Judge Zatkoff denied our motion to dismiss the copyright claim for lack of personal jurisdiction.

As you may recall, the judge had earlier denied my motion to dismiss the entire case for lack of personal jurisdiction – but that denial was largely for procedural reasons, as I was representing myself at the time and had not challenged the jurisdiction of the court in the proper legal fashion. But when Taubman added a new charge to the lawsuit, I earned the right to challenge the court's jurisdiction on the new charge. And since I'm now represented by an attorney, at least I knew that the motion wouldn't be denied because of my failure to follow the rules.

Unfortunately, the judge denied the motion just the same. Some of his reasoning seems a little curious to me. He says, for example, that he's not bound by a recent decision by the Court of Appeals in his own district. And he says that I submitted myself to the jurisdiction of the State of Michigan because I "willfully" responded to letters from Taubman's Michigan-based attorneys, thereby purposefully availing myself "to substantial contact with the forum state." (This would seem to imply that you're better off not responding to letters from out-of-state lawyers. Of course, a lot of people believe that you're better off not responding to letters from any lawyers, but that's another story...) And he also says that I admit that I copied "information" as well as images from Taubman's website, which is not accurate. (Not only didn't I copy any information from their website, they haven't even accused me of doing so.)

Anyway, if you'd like to read the judge's order for yourself, all you have to do is follow the link below.

View the Order (in a separate window)