Playboy had licensed Smartitan, a Singapore business, to put its trademarks on consumer products to be sold in Japan. During the life of the contract, Eltex rather than Smartitan had made all royalty payments to Playboy (Eltex and Smartitan had a common shareholder). At some point, unbeknownst to Playboy, Smartitan supposedly “dissolved”, and the contract was taken over by Eltex. Playboy learned that Smartitan was using the marks on unauthorized products, and Smartitan was also frequently late with sales reports. Playboy audited Smartitan under their contract; at Smartitan’s request, the audit took place at the offices of Eltex in Hong Kong. After the audit. Playboy sued Smartitan and Eltex for breach of the contract. Smartitan moved to dismiss for insufficient service of process.Playboy had attempted the serve Smartitan in Singapore to no avail—it could not find anyone in Singapore on whom to make service. So Playboy sent the summons and complaint to Smartitan’s shareholder (who was also Eltex’s shareholder) in Hong Kong. The question was whether this service was sufficient. Smartitan argued that the service was improper under Rule 4(f)(2)(A), because Singapore law permitted service outside Singapore only with the permission of a Singapore court. But the court rejected the premise of this line of attack. It held that because Smartitan was Eltex’s alter ego, service on Eltex (which Playboy had accomplished without a hitch) was sufficient to bring Smartitan before the court.