The Fourth Circuit has upheld haling an Indian outfit into a Virginia federal court to answer claims that it misused a Virginia entity's intellectual property in the U.S.
The decision pivoted on the fact that the parties' relationship had its "genesis" in the Indian defendant's visit to the Charlottesville in 1984. The parties' ensuing License Agreement allowed the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India to market a program for training and "chartering" financial analysts overseas. The ICFAI and the CFA Institute inked the agreement in India, but over a 13-year period "ICFAI repeatedly reached into Virginia to transact business with the CFA Institute, invoking the benefits and protections of Virginia law", and "corresponded and collaborated with the CFA Institute". CFA Institute v. Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India, No. 07-1970, slip op. at 16 (4th Cir. Jan. 9, 2009).
The court concluded that ICFAI's purposeful contacts with the "Sic Semper Tyrannis" state satisfied the Virginia long arm statute as well as due process requirements. It thus affirmed the district court's refusal to set aside a default judgment in favor of the CFA Institute on its claims that ICFAI violated the License Agreement by using CFA's intellectual property in the U.S.
