Cengage Advantage Books: Foundations of the Legal Environment of Business 2nd Edition by Marianne Jennings, Albert Napier, Marianne Jennings

Exercise 8

Centurion Wireless, Inc., is a Nebraska corporation that designs and engineers antennas and power products for cell phones. Hop-On is a Nevada corporation, selling, among other products, disposable cell phones. Hop-On and Centurion entered into a contract under which Centurion agreed to design, develop, and integrate an antenna design for Hop-On and to provide up to 100 prototype antennae. Centurion was to be paid $10,000 by February 15, 2002. Centurion also agreed not to sell the antenna design to any other cell 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 learned that Hop-On had copied and used the antenna design in its phones. Hop-On's phones with 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 has 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).]