The case of the day is DFSB Kollective Co. v. Bing Yang (N.D. Cal. 2013). We reviewed a previous DFSB case in July 2012. As in the earlier case, the claim here was for copyright infringement. One of the defendants, Bin Yang, lived in Vietnam. The other, Indrawati Yang, lived in Indonesia. Neither country is a party to the Hague Service Convention.

The court granted leave under FRCP 4(f)(3) to serve both defendant with process via email. In the circumstances of the case email was reasonably calculated to reach the defendants; indeed, given how they did business it seemed the only way to reach them. The case is pretty unremarkable, and I note it really just to make one point. Because neither Vietnam nor Indonesia is a party to the Hague Service Convention, the court’s decision to permit service of process by email cannot be read as support for the view of the judge in the much-maligned (by me) Gurung v. Malhotra case. That is all.