No. 23-1738

SYSCO MACHINERY CORP.,

Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.

CYMTEK SOLUTIONS, INC.; CYMMETRIK ENTERPRISE CO. LTD.,

Defendants, Appellees.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Leo T. Sorokin, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Barron, Chief Judge, Lipez and Kayatta, Circuit Judges.

Christopher E. Hanba, with whom Ariana Deskins Pellegrino, Dickinson Wright PLLC, Christopher J. Somma, and Somma Law PLLC were on brief, for appellant. Kevin Tottis, with whom Keith M. Stolte, Max Stein, TottisLaw, Barbara A. Fiacco, Allison L. Anderson, and Foley Hoag LLP were on brief, for appellee Cymtek Solutions, Inc. Li Chen, with whom Lumens Law Group PLLC, Dawn E. Murphy- Johnson, and Miller & Chevalier Chartered were on brief, for appellee Cymmetrik Enterprise Co. Ltd.

December 20, 2024 KAYATTA, Circuit Judge. Taiwanese company Sysco Machinery Corp. ("Sysco") sued Taiwanese company Cymtek Solutions, Inc. ("Cymtek") and Taiwanese company Cymmetrik Enterprise Co. Ltd. ("Cymmetrik") in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts for conduct originating in Taiwan that allegedly infringed Sysco copyrights for material created in Taiwan. The sole issue addressed on this appeal is whether the district court properly exercised its discretion in applying the doctrine of forum non conveniens to dismiss this lawsuit. For the following reasons, we hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion.

I.

Sysco, Cymtek, and Cymmetrik are three Taiwanese companies involved in the business of industrial cutting. Around twenty years ago, Sysco's team members -- all of whom were based in Taiwan -- developed the rotary die-cutting ("RDC") machine that spawned this dispute. Sysco also created, in Taiwan, a series of technical drawings illustrating the RDC. These Taiwanese drawings, to which we refer as the "copyrighted works," enjoy copyright protection in both the United States and Taiwan. In 2017, Sysco began shipping RDCs from Taiwan to the United States, using U.S. distributor DCS USA Corp. ("DCS") to develop and maintain U.S. client relationships.

In April 2021, several Sysco employees -- all of whom are Taiwanese -- left the company to create and work for Cymtek.

- 2 - They did so with financial support from Cymmetrik, an existing company that wholly owned Cymtek until late December 2021. According to Sysco, Cymtek developed a competing RDC in Taiwan by misappropriating Sysco's trade secrets and copyrighted works. Cymtek also formed a relationship with DCS and allegedly used that relationship to usurp Sysco's U.S. business by shipping Cymtek's competing RDCs from Taiwan to the United States. Sysco additionally alleges that Cymtek copied Sysco's copyrighted works in Taiwan and sent those copies "into the United States in order to facilitate DCS's installation of RDCs for the U.S. customers."

II.

The present dispute represents Sysco's third roll of the dice. Sysco first brought suit in Taiwan's Intellectual Property and Commercial Court ("IPCC") against Cymtek and several of its employees and won a March 2022 preliminary injunction barring them from using the copyrighted works or disclosing any information contained therein. Those proceedings are ongoing. Sysco reportedly did not include Cymmetrik in those proceedings "because most of the evidenc