Righthaven LLC v. Vote For The Worst, LLC [1]

On June 28, 2010, Righthaven LLC, a Las Vegas company associated with Las Vegas Review-Journal owner Stephens Media LLC, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the website company Vote for the Worst ("VFTW") LLC and two of its managers, David Della Terza and Nathan Palmer.  Righthaven sued [2] VFTW after a user posted a Las Vegas Review-Journal article on the site's forum.

On August 16, 2010, VFTW moved to dismiss.  VFTW argued that the court lacked personal jurisdiction because none of the defendants are residents of or have sufficient contacts with Nevada.  The court denied [3] VFTW's motion on March 30, 2011.

VFTW filed an answer [4] on April 13, 2011, asserting defenses of fair use, lack of personal and subject matter jurisdiction, and innocent infringement. 

Update:

4/17/2011 - VFTW filed a motion to dismiss [5] for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, based on the recently-unsealed agreement that purported to assign Stephens Media's copyright in various content to Righthaven.  Hoehn argued that the agreement, which was unsealed by the court hearing Righthaven LLC v. Democratic Underground LLC [6], shows that Righthaven lacks the standing to sue because Righthaven was not the exclusive holder of any rights in the copyrighted material at issue in the lawsuit.  Under Silvers v. Sony Pictures Entm’t, Inc. [7], 402 F.3d 881 (9th Cir. 2005), a plaintiff must be the exclusive holder in a copyright to sue.  Under the unsealed agreement, Stephens Media retained exclusive rights in the works, thereby preventing Righthaven from being able to sue on the copyright.