Purposeful availment

Purposeful availment is the part of personal jurisdiction analysis that focuses on the defendant's own choices. Just having a website that people in a state can see, or being dragged into the state by someone else's conduct, is usually not enough. The defendant has to have done something to take advantage of the state, like signing contracts there, shipping products there, or targeting customers there. The idea is that if you choose to benefit from a state, you should not be surprised to be sued there. Random or accidental contacts do not count.