Chapter XLIV: Section 32: There is a statement that

all actions arising under the copyright laws of the United States
shall be originally cognizable by the circuit courts of the United
States, the district court of any Territory, the supreme court of
the District of Columbia, the district courts of Alaska, Hawaii,
and Porto Rico, and the courts of first instance of the Philippine
Islands.

Gentlemen, one of the competitors of the gentlemen before me wrote an opera, and that was George Ade, and in this opera he inserted this witticism:

The Constitution may follow the flag, but the cocktail is sure to.

We are told by the Supreme Court that the Constitution does not follow the flag necessarily; it follows it if Congress sends it there. Now, if in the wisdom of Congress the copyright law should be extended to Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands, that can be accomplished only by a statute expressing that intention. And the statement that the courts in those outlying regions shall have jurisdiction of copyright cases amounts to nothing unless you extend the copyright laws to those portions of the earth's surface. I am not in favor of doing it; but if you want to make copyrights effective in those outlying regions you must do so by express enactment.

Here is a more important matter:

Actions arising under this act may be instituted in the district of
which the defendant is an inhabitant, or in the district where the
violation of any provision of this act has occurred.

That ought to be amended by substituting the word "his" for the
word "the," because as it reads now you can sue a man for somebody
else's infringement.

Mr. CHANEY. So that it would read "his violation?"

Mr. WALKER. Yes; substitute "his" for "the." Then there should be added to that section this language: "And wherein the defendant has a regular and established place of business."

The public policy involved in that point has been threshed out for many years in patent cases; and in patent cases it has been found to be unjust to compel anybody to submit to an action for infringement of a patent in any district unless it be in the district of which he is an inhabitant, or a district where he has a regular and established place of business. You can not sue somebody for infringing a patent merely by proving that he did formerly infringe that patent in a particular district away from home, or by finding him in that particular place. You can not go to Chicago and sue a New York man for infringing a patent on the allegation that a year or so ago he did infringe that patent in the northern district of Illinois, unless you prove also that he has a regular and established place of business in Chicago. No man ought to be sued for infringing a copyright except in the district where he resides; or, lacking that, in the district where he is engaged in business.

Mr. CHANEY. Then you would favor the defendant rather than the complainant in such a case?

Mr. WALKER. No; I would be just to both; and my proposition is deduced from the present patent statute, and that patent statute is deduced from considerations of justice as they have worked out during fifty years of patent litigation as on the whole being most equitable.