Effects test

The U.S. Supreme Court in Calder v. Jones held that the "minimum contacts" due process requirement for personal jurisdiction could be satisfied on the basis of the "effects" that out-of-state conduct had in the forum state. The Court held that a California court could assert jurisdiction over a Florida publisher for publishing an article defaming the California plaintiff when the defendant's act was an intentional action expressly aimed at California and that the "brunt of the injury would be felt" by the plaintiff in California.

In the context of the Internet, in Panavision v. Toeppen, the court found that when Toeppen, an Illinois defendant, registered Panavision's trademark as his domain name and intended to extract money out Panavision, a California corporation, the effects test was met because Toeppen's act was intentionally calculated to target Panavision in California, and that Panavision suffered the harm in California when it could not use its own trademark as its [[domain name].