Case of the Day: Wave Studio, LLC v. Gen. Hotel Mgmt., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34797 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 10, 2017)

Summary:

Plaintiff is a New York corporation with principal place of business in White Plains. The principal of the plaintiff is a Malaysian citizen who lives in Singapore. The defendant is a British Virgin Islands corporation whose principal place of business is Singapore. Plaintiff sued the defendant for infringement of intellectual property right.

The court granted a summary judgment against the plaintiff based on forum non conveniens. Although the case was filed more than two years ago, the court found the delay was not a bar to a forum non conveniens claim, and found Singapore was an adequate alternate forum.

Takeaway:

Here is forum non conveniens, the greatest procedural weapon for foreign defendants. Although forum non conveniens is usually raised at the outset of the litigation, it can be deployed at any stage of the litigation, as this case shows. Although the law says that plaintiffs are entitled to deference in their choice of forum, it is rarely the case that the courts actually use the deference to overcome a forum non conveniens claim.