FORUM SHOPPING AND LONG ARM STATUTES IN IP LAW

Forum shopping refers to the practice of litigants of approaching courts that they deem are most likely 
to provide a favorable order or judgment. Choice of forum for adjudication of a matter is not per se
illegal if the law allows the parties to choose from the available forums to adjudicate upon their matters. 
Forum shopping offers several benefits: 
 Greater potential for a favorable order or judgment based on the court’s precedents  
 Tap into the special expertise of the forum, when the matter is highly technical or complex. 
 Capitalize the efficiency of the forum in dealing with such matters. 
 Geographically advantageous to plaintiffs where defendant is not present in India 

However, when a party seeks out a jurisdiction simply to gain a juridical advantage rather than a real 
and substantial connection of the matter to the jurisdiction, such a practice is ordinarily condemned.
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When forum shopping becomes rampant and overburdens a forum with loosely connected or 
unconnected matters, the court would take steps to discourage it leading to several problems: 
 Delay in obtaining justice for the Plaintiff as the lawsuit would have to be re-filed in a more 
appropriate jurisdiction. Cases that require quick resolution would be severely hampered by 
such delays.  
 The Plaintiff may face reprimand from the court for unnecessarily overburdening the court. 
In India, generally, for a court to exercise jurisdiction under section 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 
1908 (“CPC”) the defendants should either (a) reside or carry on business or personally work for gains 
within the territorial jurisdiction of the forum; or (b) the cause of action should wholly or in part arise in 
the territorial jurisdiction of the court. However, in certain cases, the plaintiff avails of the benefits of a 
statue which gives a forum the jurisdiction to try matters concerning defendants based and operating 
outside the forum’s territorial jurisdiction. Such statues are called ‘long arm statutes’ since they allow a 
forum to exercise jurisdiction by virtue of the plaintiff’s presence in the forum, where the defendants 
are not residents of the forum.  

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