"Purposeful Availment" Needed for Online Jurisdiction, Court Says

Even if an Internet Web site is both commercial and interactive, a court cannot exercise jurisdiction over its operator unless there is also proof that the company has "purposefully availed" itself of doing business in that state, a federal appeals court has ruled. But in a key victory for plaintiffs, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also held that judges must be willing to consider the defendant's non-Internet activities "as part of the 'purposeful availment' calculus" and that sometimes a plaintiff must be given a chance to build just such a case for jurisdiction.