A suit brought by the National Football League against a man who runs a Web site called “nfltoday.com” can be litigated in New York, even though the site’s alleged trademark and copyright infringements occurred in California, a federal judge in Manhattan has ruled.
In his ruling, Judge John S. Martin Jr. noted that it has been established by prior court rulings that a Web site operator does not subject himself to the jurisdiction of courts in another state simply because residents of that state visit the site. But he said the difference in the NFL’s suit was that the nfltoday.com operator, Ken Miller of Northern California, earned substantial income from interstate commerce — that is, the revenue from sale of advertising on the Web site, including sports betting ads.
