Epic Communications, Inc. v. Richwave Technology, Inc.

This is an action by a Taiwanese corporation and its California subsidiary seeking damages for an alleged misappropriation of intellectual property originally transferred by their predecessor in interest, a California corporation, to a corporation in Taiwan. The transfer took place pursuant to a joint development agreement negotiated in substantial part by a Taiwanese engineer then employed by the transferee corporation. Three defendants are named: the transferee corporation, the engineer who negotiated the development agreement, and a second Taiwanese corporation formed by her as a “spin-off” of the transferee. The trial court granted a motion by the engineer and the “spin-off’ corporation to quash service of process, reasoning that even if those defendants had sufficient contact with California to otherwise be subject to the jurisdiction of its courts, the Taiwanese residence of the principal plaintiff corporation made it unreasonable to exercise jurisdiction in California. We reject this conclusion. A refusal by California courts to exercise jurisdiction cannot be justified by the mere fact that a claim arising from California contacts is prosecuted by a nonresident.…