## Facts

- David Mink, a Texas resident, developed the Opportunity Tracking Computer System (OTC), a software-and-hardware system to track sales and missed opportunities.
- Mink filed patent and copyright applications for OTC in May 1997.
- At a June 1997 trade show, Mink demonstrated OTC and provided written materials to Richard Stark, a Colorado resident, to discuss potential marketing.
- Mink alleged Stark later disclosed OTC information to David Middlebrook, a Vermont resident, and that Middlebrook and AAAA Development LLC (a Vermont corporation) conspired to copy OTC for financial gain.
- AAAA and Middlebrook asserted they had no property in Texas, made no Texas sales, and had no employees or agents travel to or represent them in Texas.
- AAAA advertised in a national furniture trade journal and maintained a website providing product information, an email link, and a printable order form, with no shown online transactions or contracts with Texas residents.

## Issues

1. Whether AAAA Development and Middlebrook had sufficient minimum contacts with Texas to support specific personal jurisdiction consistent with due process.
2. Whether AAAA’s website (information, email link, printable order form) constituted purposeful availment sufficient to support Texas personal jurisdiction.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction.
- The court held Mink failed to show defendants purposefully established minimum contacts with Texas related to the asserted claims.
- The court held the website was passive or only minimally interactive and, without evidence of Texas transactions, did not constitute “doing business” in Texas for jurisdictional purposes.

## Legal Principles

- Specific personal jurisdiction requires (1) purposeful availment through forum-directed contacts and (2) a claim arising out of or relating to those contacts; the exercise of jurisdiction must also comport with fair play and substantial justice.
- National advertising, without forum-targeted activity or resulting forum transactions, generally does not establish purposeful availment.
- For website-based contacts, courts assess interactivity and commercial nature: fully transactional sites can support jurisdiction, purely informational sites generally cannot, and intermediate sites require evidence showing meaningful commercial exchange with forum residents.
- A website that provides information, allows email contact, and offers a printable order form—without evidence of contracts or transactions with forum residents—does not alone create minimum contacts.

## Conclusion

Because AAAA and Middlebrook had no demonstrated Texas sales, agents, property, or forum-directed transactions, and because AAAA’s website was at most minimally interactive without evidence of Texas business conducted through it, Texas courts could not exercise specific personal jurisdiction consistent with due process.


Mink v. AAAA Dev. LLC, 190 F.3d 333 (5th Cir. 1999)