Go-Video, Inc. v. Akai Electric Company, Ltd., and Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, Ltd.

This is an interlocutory appeal from an order of the District Court for the District of Arizona in which we must decide two related questions: first, whether an antitrust plaintiff who serves process pursuant to the provisions of § 12 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 22 , may properly establish venue under the Alien Venue Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1391 (d); and second, whether it was error for the district court to exercise personal jurisdiction over alien defendants based on an assessment of their contacts with the United States as a whole, rather than their contacts with the forum district. The district court ruled that venue need not be established under the same statute which provides the basis for service of process, that venue lay properly in Arizona under the Alien Venue Act, and that the “national contacts” of the defendants were sufficient for the exercise of personal jurisdiction. We agree and affirm.

I.

The plaintiff in the underlying action, Go-Video, Inc. (“Go-Video”), is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Arizona. Since 1984, Go-Video has apparently been attempting to purchase parts from which it could assemble a “dual deck” video cassette…