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No. 04-2733

CECIL McBEE,

Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.

DELICA CO., LTD.,

Defendant, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE

[Hon. Gene Carter, Senior U.S. District Judge]

Before

 Selya, Lynch, and Howard,

Circuit Judges.

    Alfred C. Frawley, with whom Robert O. Newton and Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios & Haley, LLP were on brief, for plaintiff, appellant.

    Todd S. Holbrook, with whom John G. Osborn and Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson were on brief, for defendant, appellee.

         LYNCH, Circuit Judge. It has long been settled that the Lanham Act can, in appropriate cases, be applied extraterritorially. See Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., 344 U.S. 280 (1952). This case, dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, requires us, as a matter of first impression for this circuit, to lay out a framework for determining when such extraterritorial use of the Lanham Act is proper.

         In doing so, we choose not to adopt the formulations used by various other circuits. See, e.g., Reebok Int'l, Ltd. v. Marnatech Enters., 970 F.2d 552, 554-57 (9th Cir. 1992); Vanity Fair Mills v. T. Eaton Co., 234 F.2d 633, 642-43 (2d Cir. 1956). The best-known test, the Vanity Fair test, asks (1) whether the defendant is an American citizen, (2) whether the defendant's actions have a substantial effect on United States commerce, and (3) whether relief would create a conflict with foreign law. 234 F.2d at 642-43. These three prongs are given an uncertain weight. Based on Steele and subsequent Supreme Court case law, we disaggregate the three prongs of the Vanity Fair test, identify the different types of "extraterritorial" application questions, and isolate the factors pertinent to subject matter jurisdiction.

         Our framework asks first whether the defendant is an American citizen; that inquiry is different because a separate constitutional basis for jurisdiction exists for control of activities, even foreign activities, of an American citizen. Further, when the Lanham Act plaintiff seeks to enjoin sales in the United States, there is no question of extraterritorial application; the court has subject matter jurisdiction.

         In order for a plaintiff to reach foreign activities of foreign defendants in American courts, however, we adopt a separate test. We hold that subject matter jurisdiction under the Lanham Act is proper only if the complained-of activities have a substantial effect on United States commerce, viewed in light of the purposes of the Lanham Act. If this "substantial effects" question is answered in the negative, then the court lacks jurisdiction over the defendant's extraterritorial acts; if it is answered in the affirmative, then the court possesses subject matter jurisdiction.

         We reject the notion that a comity analysis is part of subject matter jurisdiction. Comity considerations, including potential conflicts with foreign trademark law, are properly treated as questions of whether a court should, in its discretion, decline to exercise subject matter jurisdiction that it already possesses. Our approach to each of these issues is in harmony with the analogous rules for extraterritorial application of the antitrust laws. See Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. California, 509 U.S. 764, 795-99 (1993).

         The plaintiff, Cecil McBee, an American citizen and resident, seeks to hold the defendant, Delica Co., Ltd. (Delica), responsible for its activities in Japan said to harm McBee's reputation in both Japan and the United States and for Delica's purported activities in the United States. McBee is a well-known American jazz musician; Delica is a Japanese corporation that adopted the name "Cecil McBee" for its adolescent female clothing line. McBee sued for false endorsement and dilution under the Lanham Act. The district court dismissed all of McBee's Lanham Act claims, concluding that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. See McBee v. Delica Co., No. 02-198-P-C, 2004 WL 2674360 (D. Me. Nov. 19, 2004) (unpublished).

         We affirm, albeit on different reasoning. We conclude that the court lacked jurisdiction over McBee's claims seeking (1) an injunction in the United States barring access to Delica's Internet website, which is written in Japanese, and (2) damages for harm to McBee due to Delica's sales in Japan. McBee has made no showing that Delica's activities had a substantial effect on United States commerce. As to McBee's claim for (3) an injunction barring Delica from selling its goods in the United States, we hold that the district court had jurisdiction but conclude that this claim is without merit because the only sales Delica has made into the United States were induced by McBee for purposes of this litigation, and there is no showing that Delica plans on selling into the United States again.

I.

         The relevant facts are basically undisputed. McBee, who lives in both Maine and New York, is a jazz bassist with a distinguished career spanning over forty-five years. He has performed in the United States and worldwide, has performed on over 200 albums, and has released six albums under his own name (including in Japan). He won a Grammy Award in 1989, was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1991, and teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. McBee has toured Japan several times, beginning in the early 1980s, and has performed in many major Japanese cities, including Tokyo. He continues to tour in Japan. McBee has never licensed or authorized the use of his name to anyone, except of course in direct connection with his musical performances, as for example on an album. In his own words, he has sought to "have [his] name associated only with musical excellence."

         Delica is a Japanese clothing retailer. In 1984, Delica adopted the trade name "Cecil McBee" for a line of clothing and accessories primarily marketed to teen-aged girls. Delica holds a Japanese trademark for "Cecil McBee," in both Japanese and Roman or English characters, for a variety of product types. Delica owns and operates retail shops throughout Japan under the brand name "Cecil McBee"; these are the only stores where "Cecil McBee" products are sold. There are no "Cecil McBee" retail shops outside of Japan. Delica sold approximately $23 million worth of "Cecil McBee" goods in 1996 and experienced steady growth in sales in subsequent years; in 2002, Delica sold $112 million worth of "Cecil McBee" goods.

         Delica puts out a "style book" or catalog that includes pictures and descriptions of the products in its "Cecil McBee" line; this style book is written in Japanese with some English words for effect. The style book is available in Japan at the retail stores and in certain other locations; sometimes it is included with shipped packages of "Cecil McBee" products. The style book contains telephone and fax numbers which allow a customer to order "Cecil McBee" merchandise from another company, Opus M. Co., Ltd., and have it shipped directly to the customer. Opus M. Co. buys the goods from Delica for this purpose, and then uses yet another company, Hamasho Co., Ltd., to do the shipping. It is undisputed that Hamasho Co. has never shipped any "Cecil McBee" goods outside of Japan. As described later, Delica's policy generally is to decline orders from the United States.

         Delica operates a website, http://www.cecilmcbee.net, which contains pictures and descriptions of "Cecil McBee" products, as well as locations and telephone numbers of retail stores selling those products. The website is created and hosted in Japan, and is written almost entirely in Japanese, using Japanese characters (although, like the style book, it contains some English words). The website contains news about the "Cecil McBee" line, including promotions. Customers can log onto the site to access their balance of bonus "points" earned for making past "Cecil McBee" purchases, as well as information about how to redeem those points for additional merchandise. However, the site does not allow purchases of "Cecil McBee" products to be made online. The website can be viewed from anywhere in the Internet-accessible world.

         McBee produced evidence that, when searches on Internet search engines (such as Google) are performed for the phrase "Cecil McBee," Delica's website (www.cecilmcbee.net) generally comes up as one of the first few results, and occasionally comes up first, ahead of any of the various websites that describe the musical accomplishments of the plaintiff. Certain other websites associated with Delica's "Cecil McBee" product line also come up when such searches are performed; like www.cecilmcbee.net, it is evident from the search results page that these websites are written primarily in Japanese characters.

         In 1995, plaintiff McBee became aware that Delica was using his name, without his authorization, for a line of clothing in Japan. He contacted an American lawyer, who advised him that Delica was unlikely to be subject to personal jurisdiction in the United States. McBee retained a Japanese attorney, who sent a letter to Delica asking it to cease using the "Cecil McBee" name. When Delica declined, McBee petitioned the Japanese Patent Office to invalidate Delica's English-language trademark on "Cecil McBee."

         On February 28, 2002, the Japanese Patent Office ruled Delica's trademark in Japan invalid. However, Delica appealed to the Tokyo High Court, which on December 26, 2002, vacated the decision of the Japanese Patent Office. On remand, the Japanese Patent Office found for Delica and reinstated Delica's registration of the "Cecil McBee" trademark. McBee appealed that ruling to the Tokyo High Court and lost; the trademark reinstatement has become final.

         In early 2002, Delica formulated a policy not to sell or ship "Cecil McBee" brand products to the United States and informed its managers throughout the company. Delica's admitted reason for this policy was to prevent McBee from being able to sue Delica in the United States.

         McBee was beginning to consider just such a strategy. From December 2001 through early 2003, McBee retained three Japanese-speaking investigators to attempt to purchase "Cecil McBee" products from Delica and have them shipped to Maine. They met with mixed success. One initially, in December 2001, contacted the webmaster of http://www.cecilmcbee.net by email, asking about certain jewelry displayed on the website; that webmaster referred the investigator to the "Cecil McBee" retail shops in Japan for further information, but noted that at that time only domestic shipping was available.

         The investigators then used the telephone numbers on the http://www.cecilmcbee.net website to contact various "Cecil McBee" retail stores in Japan directly. The investigators made it clear that they were residents of the United States inquiring about purchasing "Cecil McBee" goods. When the investigators requested an opportunity to buy merchandise and have it shipped to them in Maine, some stores stated that this could not be done, some of the stores worked out an arrangement whereby they would ship to an address in Japan but the investigator would then arrange to have the products forwarded to Maine, and some of the stores, at various times, shipped directly to the investigators in Maine. The total value of "Cecil McBee" merchandise purchased by these three investigators -- including both goods shipped directly to Maine by Delica and goods shipped via the indirect method -- was approximately $2,500. As counsel for McBee has conceded, there is no evidence of any other "Cecil McBee" sales by Delica to the United States.

         Further, there is virtually no evidence of "Cecil McBee" brand goods entering the United States after being sold by Delica in Japan. McBee stated in affidavit that "[f]riends, fellow musicians, fans, students, and others . . . have reported seeing [his] name on clothing, shopping bags [and] merchandise (whether worn or carried by a young girl walking on the street in Boston or New York or elsewhere) . . . ." But no further evidence or detail of these sightings in the United States was provided. McBee also provided evidence that Cecil McBee goods have occasionally been sold on eBay, an auction website that allows bids to be placed and items sold anywhere in the world. Most of the sellers were not located in the United States, and there is no evidence that any of the items were purchased by American buyers.

         McBee states that he finds the use of his name by Delica "undignified, highly offensive and repugnant." He feels that he has been harmed by Delica's use of his name because people have reported to him that they have seen his name on Delica's products, either in the United States or in Japan, or on Delica's website, and have asked him if he endorsed those products. Even when he denies having a relationship with Delica, some people do not believe him, and some have asked him, "both in jest and with some degree of seriousness," whether he is "into young girls," the target audience for Delica's "Cecil McBee" line.

         McBee produces little evidence relating to the frequency of such incidents, nor does he give many specific examples. He testified in deposition that two of his American friends and fellow musicians, while touring Japan, had seen a "Cecil McBee" advertisement created by Delica and had become confused as to whether McBee had some relationship with a clothing line; they asked McBee about the relationship when they returned to the United States. McBee told some of his students at the New England Conservatory of Music about his lawsuit against Delica, in order to help them understand the value of intellectual property law to a musician; some of his students found the Delica website and started rumors of his having a relationship with a women's clothing company. He feels that some of his students may have lost their focus during his classes because they are thinking about his connection to women's clothing. Further, his class enrollment has dropped "for one reason or another" and so his position as a professor at the Conservatory has been made more uncertain.

         McBee has seen his own name on "Cecil McBee" merchandise in Japan while touring and has become angry. His Japanese touring partner during his recent tours of Japan (from 2002 onwards) has made announcements before concerts that McBee had no relationship with the Delica clothing line. In McBee's view, his audience of Japanese fans at his concerts has become younger through time and therefore more in line with the core age group of consumers for Delica's brand. McBee also notes that a fan once came up to him while he was performing in Taiwan to speak with him about Delica's line; the fan apparently presumed a connection between McBee and the line. As of 2003, McBee only had one regular tour in Japan each year, lasting three weeks or so each time; in McBee's view "[i]t is speculating, but it is . . . possible" that Delica's "Cecil McBee" brand had led to his failure to receive additional Japanese touring opportunities.

II.

         McBee's complaint, filed October 1, 2002, alleged trademark dilution and unfair competition claims under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq., as well as various pendent Maine state law claims. McBee requested injunctive relief, damages, and attorney's fees. The core of McBee's Lanham Act claims is false endorsement: that the unlicensed use of his name has "made a misleading and false inference" that McBee endorses, approves, or sponsors Delica's product, and that inference has caused McBee harm. See 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a); 4 J.T. McCarthy, McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition § 28.14, at 28-19 (4th ed. 2005); see also Wendt v. Host Int'l, Inc., 125 F.3d 806, 812 (9th Cir. 1997).

         Delica first moved to dismiss the complaint, under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(2), on the ground that the Maine federal district court lacked personal jurisdiction over it. A magistrate judge recommended that the motion be denied, emphasizing the existence of Delica's website and the $2,500 in sales to McBee's investigators in Maine, see McBee v. Delica Co., No. 02-198-P-C, 2003 WL 1872907 (D. Me. April 14, 2003) (unpublished); the district court adopted the magistrate judge's recommendation on July 9, 2003. Discovery proceeded. Delica then moved to dismiss McBee's complaint under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1), asserting that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over McBee's Lanham Act claims because Delica's actions constituted extraterritorial conduct outside the ambit of the Act. Delica also moved for summary judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 56 based on laches, collateral estoppel due to the Japanese court decision against McBee, and various merits issues, including McBee's alleged failure to make a sufficient showing of likelihood of confusion to sustain his Lanham Act claims. McBee opposed but not on grounds of insufficient discovery, nor did he file a Rule 56(f) affidavit.

         The magistrate judge issued a recommended decision on these motions on August 19, 2004. See McBee v. Delica Co., No. 02-198-P-C, 2004 WL 2634465 (D. Me. Aug. 19, 2004) (unpublished). On the subject matter jurisdiction question, the magistrate judge first noted that the Supreme Court had held, in Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., 344 U.S. 280 (1952), that the Lanham Act could, in some circumstances, be applied to reach extraterritorial conduct. See McBee, 2004 WL 2634465, at *2. The magistrate judge also noted that this circuit has never laid out a test for when such extraterritorial application is appropriate. See id. at *2 n.3. The magistrate judge thus utilized the test stated by the Second Circuit in Vanity Fair Mills, Inc. v. T. Eaton Co., 234 F.2d 633, 642 (2d Cir. 1956), described earlier. See McBee, 2004 WL 2634465, at *2. However, the magistrate judge accepted the Fifth Circuit's modification of the first prong in Am. Rice, Inc. v. Arkansas Rice Growers Coop. Ass'n, 701 F.2d 408, 414 n.8 (5th Cir. 1983), and required a showing of only "some" effect on United States commerce. See McBee, 2004 WL 2634465, at *4. The magistrate judge recommended that all of McBee's Lanham Act claims for injunctive relief be dismissed because they failed two of the three Vanity Fair factors, but that all of his Lanham Act damages claims be allowed to go forward because they met two prongs of the test. See id. at *3-*4.

         Delica filed an objection, arguing that all of McBee's Lanham Act claims -- and not just those claims requesting injunctive relief -- failed the Vanity Fair test for extraterritorial application. McBee moved that the recommended decision be modified. He conceded that American courts had no extraterritorial jurisdiction to enjoin sales that occurred in Japan, but argued that there was jurisdiction for his damages claim against those sales. McBee also stated that he sought an injunction against Delica's sales of "Cecil McBee" goods in the United States and against Delica's use of the "Cecil McBee" website to reach United States consumers; these forms of relief, he argued, did not constitute extraterritorial applications of the Lanham Act at all and therefore the court should assert subject matter jurisdiction over them.

         The district court amended the magistrate judge's recommended decision by holding that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over all of McBee's Lanham Act claims, including both those for injunctive relief and damages. See McBee v. Delica Co., No. 02-198-P-C, 2004 WL 2674360 (D. Me. Nov. 19, 2004) (unpublished). The district court, like the magistrate judge, applied essentially the test laid out by the Second Circuit in Vanity Fair. See id. at *1. But the district court disagreed with the magistrate judge's application of that test, finding that a claim for damages, like a claim for injunctive relief, would create a conflict with Japanese trademark law. See id. at *2. Finding two of the three factors unsatisfied, the court ordered McBee's Lanham Act claims dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without considering the effect of Delica's actions on United States commerce. See id. With respect to this factor, however, the court noted that Delica's only sales into the United States "appear to have been made for purposes of this lawsuit alone." Id. at *1 n.2. After dismissing McBee's Lanham Act claims, the court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over his pendent state law claims. See id. at *2. This made it unnecessary for the court to consider Delica's summary judgment motion on other bases.

         On appeal, McBee renews his argument that his claims for a domestic injunction, both against Delica's sales into the United States and against its broadcasting of its website in the United States, do not constitute extraterritorial applications of the Lanham Act at all. Further, while McBee concedes that United States courts lack jurisdiction over his Lanham Act claim for an injunction against Delica's sales in Japan, he argues that the district court had extraterritorial jurisdiction over damages claims against those same sales. Delica responds by arguing that United States courts lack extraterritorial jurisdiction over all of McBee's Lanham Act claims, and further urges lack of personal jurisdiction, preclusion due to collateral estoppel based on the Japanese judgment, and laches as alternative grounds for affirmance.

III.

A. Framework for Assessing Extraterritorial Use of the Lanham Act

         By extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act, we mean application of the Act to activity (such as sales) of a defendant outside of the territorial boundaries of the United States. In addressing extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act, we face issues of Congressional intent to legislate extraterritorially, undergirded by issues of Congressional power to legislate extraterritorially. Usually in addressing questions of extraterritoriality, the Supreme Court has discussed Congressional intent, doing so by employing various presumptions designed to avoid unnecessary international conflict. See, e.g., Spector v. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd., 125 S. Ct. 2169, 2177 (2005); F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. v. Empagran S.A., 124 S. Ct. 2359, 2366-73 (2004); see also EEOC v. Arabian Am. Oil Co., 499 U.S. 244, 248 (1991) ("It is a longstanding principle of American law that legislation of Congress, unless a contrary intent appears, is meant to apply only within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States." (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)).

         The parties characterize the extraterritoriality issue as, at least in part, one of subject matter jurisdiction under the Act, and it is often viewed that way. See, e.g., Levi Strauss & Co. v. Sunrise Int'l Trading Co., 51 F.3d 982, 984 (11th Cir. 1995); Ocean Garden, Inc. v. Marktrade Co., Inc., 953 F.2d 500, 502 (9th Cir. 1991); see also United Phosphorus, Ltd. v. Angus Chem. Co., 322 F.3d 942, 945-51 (7th Cir. 2003) (en banc) (question whether Sherman Act applied extraterritorially under the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (FTAIA), 15 U.S.C. § 6a, went to subject matter jurisdiction of court).

         The Supreme Court has long since made it clear that the Lanham Act could sometimes be used to reach extraterritorial conduct, but it has never laid down a precise test for when such reach would be appropriate. Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., 344 U.S. 280 (1952); see also Arabian Am. Oil Co., 499 U.S. at 252-53 (distinguishing Steele). The circuit courts have established a variety of tests for determining when extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act is appropriate, treating different factual contexts as all subject to the same set of criteria. See Vanity Fair Mills v. T. Eaton Co., 234 F.2d 633, 642 (2d Cir. 1956); see also Int'l Café, S.A.L., v. Hard Rock Café Int'l (U.S.A.), Inc., 252 F.3d 1274, 1278-79 (11th Cir. 2001) (applying Vanity Fair); Nintendo of Am., Ltd., v. Aeropower Co., 34 F.3d 246, 250-51 (4th Cir. 1994) (adopting the Vanity Fair test, although requiring a "significant effect" rather than a "substantial effect" on United States commerce); Reebok Int'l, Ltd. v. Marnatech Enters., Inc., 970 F.2d 552, 554-57 (9th Cir. 1992) (applying the jurisdictional "rule of reason" from Timberlane Lumber Co. v. Bank of Am., 549 F.2d 597 (9th Cir. 1977): plaintiff must show (1) some effect on United States commerce, (2) an effect that is sufficiently great to be a cognizable injury to plaintiff under the Lanham Act, and (3) the interests and links to American commerce must be sufficiently strong in relation to those of other nations to justify, in terms of comity, an extraterritorial application of the act); Am. Rice, Inc. v. Ark. Rice Growers Coop. Ass'n, 701 F.2d 408, 414 & n. 8 (5th Cir. 1983) (modifying Vanity Fair's first prong to require only "some effect" on United States commerce). This court has not previously addressed the question.

         Steele found that there was Lanham Act jurisdiction over a defendant, selling watches in Mexico, who was a United States citizen and whose "operations and their effects were not confined within the territorial limits of a foreign nation." 344 U.S. at 286. Defendant made no sales within the United States. The Court held that the Lanham Act conferred broad jurisdiction in that its purpose was to regulate "commerce within the control of Congress." 15 U.S.C. § 1127. The Act prohibits the use of certain infringing marks "in commerce." 15 U.S.C. § 1114(1); Id. § 1125(a). Importantly, commerce is defined in the Act as "all commerce which may lawfully be regulated by Congress." Id. § 1127.

         The Steele Court did not define the outer limits of Congressional power because it was clear that the facts presented a case within those limits. The Steele Court explicitly and implicitly relied on two different aspects of Congressional power to reach this conclusion. First, it explicitly relied on the power of Congress to regulate "the conduct of its own citizens," even extraterritorial conduct. Steele, 344 U.S. at 285-86. This doctrine is based on an idea that Congressional power over American citizens is a matter of domestic law that raises no serious international concerns, even when the citizen is located abroad. See id. at 285-86 (citing Skiriotes v. Florida, 313 U.S. 69, 73 (1941) (Florida state criminal law banning taking of sponges from high seas) and Branch v. Federal Trade Comm'n, 141 F.2d 31, 35 (7th Cir. 1944) (federal unfair competition law)); see also F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., 124 S. Ct. at 2367; Cook v. Tait, 265 U.S. 47, 54-56 (1924) (income tax law); Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law of the United States § 402(2) (1986) ("[A] state has jurisdiction to prescribe law with respect to . . . the activities . . . of its nationals outside as well as within its territory.").          Second, Steele also implicitly appears to rely on Congressional power over foreign commerce, although the Foreign Commerce clause is not cited -- the Court noted that the defendant's actions had an impact on the plaintiff's reputation, and thus on commerce within the United States. See 344 U.S. at 286-87, 288. The Steele Court concluded that an American citizen could not evade the thrust of the laws of the United States by moving his operations to a "privileged sanctuary" beyond our borders. Id. at 287.

         For purposes of determining subject matter jurisdiction, we think certain distinctions are important at the outset. The reach of the Lanham Act depends on context; the nature of the analysis of the jurisdictional question may vary with that context. Steele addressed the pertinent Lanham Act jurisdictional analysis when an American citizen is the defendant. In such cases, the domestic effect of the international activities may be of lesser importance and a lesser showing of domestic effects may be all that is needed. We do not explore this further because our case does not involve an American citizen as the alleged infringer.

         When the purported infringer is not an American citizen, and the alleged illegal activities occur outside the United States, then the analysis is different, and appears to rest solely on the foreign commerce power. Yet it is beyond much doubt that the Lanham Act can be applied against foreign corporations or individuals in appropriate cases; no court has ever suggested that the foreign citizenship of a defendant is always fatal. See, e.g., Sterling Drug, Inc. v. Bayer AG, 14 F.3d 733, 746 (2d Cir. 1994); Wells Fargo & Co. v. Wells Fargo Express Co., 556 F.2d 406, 429 (9th Cir. 1977). Some academics have criticized treating the Lanham Act differently from patent and copyright law, which generally are not applied extraterritorially. See C. Bradley, Extraterritorial Application of U.S. Intellectual Property Law, 37 Va. J. Int'l L. 505 (1997); but see R. Schechter, Comment, The Case For Limited Extraterritorial Reach of the Lanham Act, 37 Va. J. Int'l L. 619 (1997). Nonetheless, the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the Steele approach to extraterritorial jurisdiction under the Lanham Act by distinguishing it in Arabian American Oil Co. See 499 U.S. at 252-53. The question becomes one of articulating a test for Lanham Act jurisdiction over foreign infringing activities by foreign defendants.

         The decisions of the Supreme Court in the antitrust context seem useful to us as a guide. The Court has written in this area, on the issue of extraterritorial application, far more recently than it has written on the Lanham Act, and thus the decisions reflect more recent evolutions in terms of legal analysis of extraterritorial activity. As the Court noted in Steele, Lanham Act violations abroad often radiate unlawful consequences into the United States, see 344 U.S. at 288; see also Schecter, supra, at 629-30. One can easily imagine a variety of harms to American commerce arising from wholly foreign activities by foreign defendants. There could be harm caused by false endorsements, passing off, or product disparagement, or confusion over sponsorship affecting American commerce and causing loss of American sales. Further, global piracy of American goods is a major problem for American companies: annual losses from unauthorized use of United States trademarks, according to one commentator, now amount to $200 billion annually. See Schecter, supra, at 634. In both the antitrust and the Lanham Act areas, there is a risk that absent a certain degree of extraterritorial enforcement, violators will either take advantage of international coordination problems or hide in countries without efficacious antitrust or trademark laws, thereby avoiding legal authority.

         In Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. California, 509 U.S. 764 (1993), the Supreme Court addressed the issue of when a United States court could assert jurisdiction over Sherman Act claims brought against foreign defendants for a conspiracy that occurred abroad to raise reinsurance prices. It held that jurisdiction over foreign conduct existed under the antitrust laws if that conduct "was meant to produce and did in fact produce some substantial effect in the United States." Id. at 796; see also United States v. Nippon Paper Indus. Co., 109 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir. 1997); Doe I v. Unocal Corp., 395 F.3d 932, 961 (2d Cir. 2002) (applying the substantial effects test to determine whether jurisdiction should be asserted over foreign securities fraud). The Hartford Fire Court also held that comity considerations, such as whether relief ordered by an American court would conflict with foreign law, were properly understood not as questions of whether a United States court possessed subject matter jurisdiction, but instead as issues of whether such a court should decline to exercise the jurisdiction that it possessed. See id. at 797-98 & n.24.

         The framework stated in Hartford Fire guides our analysis of the Lanham Act jurisdictional question for foreign activities of foreign defendants. We hold that the Lanham Act grants subject matter jurisdiction over extraterritorial conduct by foreign defendants only where the conduct has a substantial effect on United States commerce. Absent a showing of such a substantial effect, at least as to foreign defendants, the court lacks jurisdiction over the Lanham Act claim. Congress has little reason to assert jurisdiction over foreign defendants who are engaging in activities that have no substantial effect on the United States, and courts, absent an express statement from Congress, have no good reason to go further in such situations. See 1A P. Areeda & H. Hovenkamp, Antitrust Law ¶ 272f (2d ed. 2000) ("When a government's interest in a transaction is remote, minor, tangential, or otherwise insignificant, that government would presumably not seek to control it."); 1 W. Fugate, Foreign Commerce and the Antitrust Laws § 2.13, at 99-100 (5th ed. 1996).

         The substantial effects test requires that there be evidence of impacts within the United States, and these impacts must be of a sufficient character and magnitude to give the United States a reasonably strong interest in the litigation. See, e.g., 1 Fugate, supra, §§ 2.9, 2.12, 2.13; see also 1A Areeda & Hovenkamp, supra, ¶ 272f2; United Phosphorus, 322 F.3d at 952-53. The "substantial effects" test must be applied in light of the core purposes of the Lanham Act, which are both to protect the ability of American consumers to avoid confusion and to help assure a trademark's owner that it will reap the financial and reputational rewards associated with having a desirable name or product. See, e.g., Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 539 U.S. 23, 33-34 (2003); see also Atl. Richfield Co. v. ARCO Globus Int'l Co., 150 F.3d 189, 193-94 (2d Cir. 1998). The goal of the jurisdictional test is to ensure that the United States has a sufficient interest in the litigation, as measured by the interests protected by the Lanham Act, to assert jurisdiction.

         Of course, the Vanity Fair test includes a "substantial effects" inquiry as part of its three-part test. We differ from the Vanity Fair court in that we disaggregate the elements of its test: we first ask whether the defendant is an American citizen, and if he is not, then we use the substantial effects test as the sole touchstone to determine jurisdiction.

         If the substantial effects test is met, then the court should proceed, in appropriate cases, to consider comity. We also transplant for Lanham Act purposes Hartford Fire's holding that comity considerations are properly analyzed not as questions of whether there is subject matter jurisdiction, but as prudential questions of whether that jurisdiction should be exercised. See Hartford Fire, 509 U.S. at 798 n.24. Our analysis differs again from Vanity Fair on this point. See Vanity Fair, 234 F.2d at 642. Vanity Fair and other cases have considered as part of the basic jurisdictional analysis whether the defendant acted under color of protection of the trademark laws of his own country. We disagree and do not see why the scope of Congressional intent and power to create jurisdiction under the Lanham Act should turn on the existence and meaning of foreign law.

         Congress could, of course, preclude the exercise of such Lanham Act jurisdiction by statute or by ratified treaty. Or it could by statute define limits in Lanham Act jurisdiction in such international cases, as it has chosen to do in the antitrust area. See 15 U.S.C. § 6a. It has not done so.

B. Application of the Framework

         We apply the framework we have established to the facts of this case. Although district court fact-finding is permissible in a subject matter jurisdiction inquiry, and we defer to such fact-finding, here all the relevant facts are undisputed and the district court did not find any facts. Our review is de novo,