Also known as: exceptional cases
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
An affiliation with a forum state that renders a corporation at home there for purposes of general personal jurisdiction even though the forum is neither the place of incorporation nor the principal place of business. Extensive business operations in the state do not by themselves satisfy the standard.
An affiliation with a forum state that renders a corporation at home there for purposes of general personal jurisdiction even though the forum is neither the place of incorporation nor the principal place of business. Extensive business operations in the state do not by themselves satisfy the standard.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A case involving malicious, fraudulent, deliberate, or willful conduct that justifies an award of attorneys' fees to the prevailing party under statutes such as the Lanham Act or Patent Act.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A case involving malicious, fraudulent, deliberate, or willful conduct that justifies an award of attorneys' fees to the prevailing party under statutes such as the Lanham Act or Patent Act.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Eastern Electric, incorporated and headquartered in Germany, maintains a large design and testing center in Michigan that employs hundreds of engineers. Plaintiffs injured in foreign accidents sue Eastern Electric in Michigan federal court for claims having no connection to the Michigan facility. The court concludes that the Michigan operations do not constitute an exceptional case and therefore dismisses for lack of general jurisdiction.
The plaintiff must demonstrate that the corporation's affiliations with the forum are so continuous and systematic as to render it at home there. Extensive operations alone do not suffice.
Supporting sources
No. The Supreme Court has held that even substantial and continuous sales through the forum do not render a corporation at home there for unrelated claims.
Supporting sources
No. A large facility that performs design or manufacturing work does not make the state a paradigm forum when the claims arise elsewhere and the corporation's incorporation and headquarters remain outside the state.
Supporting sources
Frito-Lay deliberately imitates singer Tom Waits's distinctive voice in a commercial without permission. After Waits prevails on his Lanham Act claim, the court finds the infringement malicious and willful and awards attorneys' fees because the case qualifies as exceptional.
A court may award fees to the prevailing party only when the case is exceptional, meaning the losing party's conduct was malicious, fraudulent, deliberate, or willful.
Supporting sources
…commerce, refused to consider whether the tax was a prohibited impost or duty on imports and exports, saying: “[I]t is only in exceptional cases, and then only in cases coming from the federal courts, that [the Court] considers questions urged by a petitioner or appellant not pressed or passed upon in the courts below. ... [D]ue…