Web-Based Businesses Not Exempt From In re Cray

The court granted defendant's motion to transfer for improper venue and rejected plaintiff's argument that In re Cray’s three-part definition for "regular and established place of business" should not apply to web-based businesses. "Plaintiff asks this Court to recognize the nature of Defendant’s business – facilitating communication over the web, in every state including Nevada – and to limit the application of [In re Cray, 871 F.3d 1355 (Fed. Cir. 2017)] to factual circumstances where physical products are involved. . . . The Court finds, however, that the key inquiry is not whether physical objects are involved, but rather whether the public has access to the defendant corporation through an employee or office located in the district where a suit is brought or if the public directly accesses the services of defendant through a location in the respective forum. . . . [T]he bulk of the defendant’s employees, product development, and overall operations are located in San Francisco, and that it does not own or lease any buildings in this district, it has no Nevada phone numbers or addresses listed for its operations, and it stores no inventory or data in Nevada. These facts demonstrate that Defendant maintains no place of business in Nevada, much less one that is both regular and established."

Voip-Pal.com, Inc. v. Twitter, Inc., 2-16-cv-02338 (NVD July 23, 2018, Order) (Boulware, II, USDJ)