The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has ruled that foreign intellectual-property holding company Polygroup Macau Ltd. is subject to personal jurisdiction in the United States, reviving a trademark-infringement suit brought by Georgia-based Jekyll Island–State Park Authority. In a June 10 decision, the three-judge panel found that Polygroup Macau, registered in the British Virgin Islands, had “purposefully availed” itself of US law by securing more than 60 domestic trademark registrations and allowing affiliated companies to sell goods bearing those marks through dozens of US retailers. The court held that such activity satisfies the due-process requirements for jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(k)(2), which functions as a national long-arm statute for foreign defendants lacking substantial ties to any single state. The decision reverses a district court’s dismissal and clarifies that holding US trademark rights—and exploiting them in commerce—can expose overseas entities to litigation in American courts even when they have no physical presence here. The case, Jekyll Island–State Park Auth. v. Polygroup Macau Ltd., now returns to the trial court for further proceedings.
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