BizApps hosts a Web site that advertises its software products, features upgrades and patches for its existing products, and accepts orders from customers throughout the world. Cassie, who owns and operates Holiday Vacations, Inc, a travel agency in Wyoming, orders from the Web site a copy of BizApps's Price Control software. Price Control is designed to help businesses obtain the best prices for their products and services. When Price Control is found to have a defect in its calculating program, BizApps offers a patch on its Web site to fix the problem. Cassie has already lost profits because of the miscalculating defect, however, and files a suit against BizApps in a Wyoming state court. Can the court exercise jurisdiction over BizApps?

Question

Why or why not?

Answer 1

Some courts have upheld exercises of jurisdiction on the ba¬sis of the accessibility of a Web page. Other courts have concluded that without more, a presence on the Web is not enough to support jurisdic¬tion over a nonresident. Courts generally use a "slid¬ing scale" standard for evaluating the exercise of jurisdiction based on contacts over the Inter¬net. On that scale, a court's exercise of personal juris¬diction de¬pends on the amount of business that an individual or firm transacts over the Internet. A Web site that ac¬cepts orders from customers and provides upgrades and "patches" has a high de-gree of inter¬activity. There may be a question as to the amount of business that BizApps transacts with residents of Wyoming. If that business is sub-stantial, BizApps would likely be subject to the court's jurisdiction.