Copyright case: UMG Recordings Inc. v. Kurbanov, USA

The Russian citizen’s contacts with Virginia established that he purposefully availed himself of the privilege of conducting business in Virginia.

The federal district court in Alexandria, Virginia, erred in determining that it lacked personal jurisdiction over a Russian national accused by 12 recording companies of operating two websites that are devoted to "stream ripping" files from YouTube and other sources, including copyrighted material owned by the recording companies, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond has determined. The Russian national’s contacts with Virginia were sufficient to establish that he purposefully availed himself of the privilege of conducting business in Virginia. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of Virginia visitors to the websites, the nature of the repeated interactions with visitors sufficed to establish a commercial relationship. The advertising displayed on the accused websites also was directed towards specific jurisdictions like Virginia (UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Kurbanov, June 26, 2020, Gregory, R.).

Case date: 26 June 2020

Case number: No. 19-1124

Court: United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, Ninth Circuit

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.