Bensusan Restaurant Corporation owns and operates a popular, large New York City jazz club called “The Blue Note.” Richard King owns and has operated a small cabaret, also called “The Blue Note,” in Columbia, Missouri, since 1980. King’s establishment features live music and attracts its customers from central Missouri. In 1996, King decided to establish a website for the purpose of advertising his cabaret. King included a disclaimer on his website in which he gave a plug to Bensusan’s club and made it clear that the two businesses were unrelated. He later modified this disclaimer by making it even more explicit and said that his “cyberspot was created to provide information for Columbia, Missouri area individuals only.” Bensusan brought suit in the U.S. District court for the Southern District of New York against King seeking monetary damages and
Injunctive relief. The plaintiff maintained that King had infringed on his federally protected trademark by calling his cabaret “The Blue Note.” King moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction. He contended that he had neither engaged in business within New York nor committed any act sufficient to confer in personam jurisdiction over him by New York. The U.S. District Court agreed with King, and the case was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Should the Second Circuit affirm or reverse the District Court? Why?