To determine whether specific personal jurisdiction exists over a defendant, the Fifth Circuit applies the following three-step test:

1. 1. whether the defendant has minimum contacts with the forum state, i.e., whether it purposely directed its activities toward the forum state or purposely availed itself of the privileges of conducting activities there;
   2. whether the plaintiff's cause of action arises out of or results from the defendant's forum-related contacts; and
   3. whether the exercise of personal jurisdiction is fair and reasonable.

Spanish musician Sergio Garcia Fernandez (who performs as Angelslang) filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Louisiana accusing the Rolling Stones of infringing the copyright of two of his songs, but the Fifth Circuit affirmed that there was no personal jurisdiction over the defendants in Fernandez v. Jagger, No. 23-30909 (5th Cir. Aug. 8, 2024). The Court found that the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to transfer the case to the Southern District of New York rather than dismissing it. 

Fernandez alleged that in 2013, he shared a demo CD that included the songs “So Sorry” and “Seed of God (Talent in the Trash)” with an “immediate family member” of  Mick Jagger. Fernandez contended that the Rolling Stones “misappropriated many of the recognizable and key protected elements” of Fernandez's songs in their 2020 track “Living in a Ghost Town” which was written and recorded by the Rolling Stones outside of Louisiana and was distributed nationwide without a particular emphasis on Louisiana.

While the accused music was available on the internet to residents of Louisiana, as well as the entire United States, this did not target Louisiana in any particularized way. See Johnson v. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 21 F.4th 314, 320–21 (5th Cir. 2021) (explaining that “Texans visit[ing] [a] [web]site, clicking ads and buying things there” did not amount to purposeful availment, and that “[a]ccessibility [on the internet] alone cannot sustain our jurisdiction”); see also Admar Int'l, Inc. v. Eastrock, L.L.C., 18 F.4th 783, 785 (5th Cir. 2021) (“Merely running a website that is accessible in all 50 states, but that does not specifically target the forum state, is not enough to create ‘minimum contacts' necessary to establish personal jurisdiction in the forum state.”); Ham v. La Cienega Music Co., 4 F.3d 413, 416 (5th Cir. 1993) (marketing an allegedly copyright-infringing song to the “broadest possible geographical basis” that includes the forum state, amounts to a “highly attenuated relationship” between the allegedly unlawful acts and the forum state that is insufficient to establish minimum contacts). 

Not only do the defendants lack minimum contacts with the forum, but there is no connection between the forum and the specific claims at issue. 

Citing Admar and Pervasive Software Inc. v. Lexware GmbH & Co. KG, 688 F.3d 214 (5th Cir. 2012), the Fifth Circuit affirmed having "rejected the theory that if a defendant's website targeted the entire United States, it necessarily targeted Louisiana." 

Thomas P. Howard, LLC is experienced in litigating copyright cases nationwide including in Colorado.