Miller v. International Business Machines Corp.

MEMORANDUM *

Ralph I. Miller, assignee of the rights of Best-of-China.Com (“BCC”), appeals the district court’s dismissal of his Second Amended Complaint in its entirety. Miller appeared pro se in the district court. Specifically, Miller appeals from the dismissal (1) of all claims against defendant IBM World Trade Corporation (“IBM-WTC”) for lack of personal jurisdiction; (2) of claims one, two, three, four, five, six, and eleven against defendant International Business Machines Corp. (“IBM”) for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and of claims seven, eight, nine, ten, and twelve against IBM for failure to plead fraud with particularity under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b); and (3) of all claims against defendants IBM Engineering Technology Co. (“IBM-ETC”) and IBM China Co. (“IBMyChina”) for failure to prosecute under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b).

1. Claims against IBM-WTC.

We affirm the district court’s dismissal of all claims against IBM-WTC for lack of personal jurisdiction. The allegations in the complaint do not support a conclusion that IBM-WTC “purposefully direct[ed][its] activities” toward California or “perform[ed]…