Human Resource Selection 9th Edition by Marianne Jennings

Exercise 6

Centurion Wireless, Inc., is a Nebraska corporation that designs and engineers antennas and power products for telecommunications and information technology purposes. Hop-On is a Nevada corporation selling, among other products, disposable cellular phones. Hop-On's employee Melyssa Banda contacted Centurion by phone or e-mail in relation to designing an antenna for a cellular phone. The parties then entered into a contract entitled "Statement of Work," signed by in Lincoln, Nebraska, by Steve Bowles, Centurion's vice president of sales, in which Centurion agreed to design, develop, and integrate an antenna design for Hop-On and provide up to 100 prototype antennae. In addition, the contract provided that more prototype antennae could be sold at a per-unit price. Centurion was to be paid $10,000 by February 15, 2002. Centurion also agreed not to sell the antenna design to any other cellular phone manufacturers.
Centurion completed its work and made offers to manufacture up to 3 million antennas, but Hop-On declined. Centurion alleges that Hop-On then offered to buy the design, but the parties could not agree on a price. Centurion's final offer was to sell the antenna design for $45,000.
On April 7, 2003, Centurion was contacted by Banda, the former vice-president of Hop-On, and informed that even though Hop-On had not purchased the antenna design, it had copied and used it in their phones. Hop-On's phones, which used the Centurion antenna design, were sold at Walgreens stores in California. Hop-On operates a website at Hop-On.com, which provides some information about phones and contact information. Centurion filed suit against Hop-On in Nebraska for copyright infringement, conversion, and unjust enrichment. Hop-On filed a motion to dismiss because of Nebraska's lack of jurisdiction over it. Does the Nebraska court have jurisdiction? Why or why not? [ Centurion Wireless Technologies, Inc. v Hop-On Communications, Inc., 342 F.Supp.2d 832 (D. Neb. 2004)]