Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (“EFI”) appeals from the judgment issued by the United States District for the Northern District of California (“district court”) granting the motion of Jan R. Coyle (“Coyle”) and Kolbet Labs (collectively “defendants”) to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction EFI’s first amended complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief. Elecs, for Imaging, Inc. v. Coyle, No. 01-CV-4853 (N.D.Cal. Mar. 26, 2002). EFI’s complaint for declaratory and in-junctive relief alleged that Coyle’s United States Patent No. 6,337,746 (“the '746 patent”) was invalid and that EFI had not misappropriated defendants’ alleged trade secrets or breached any contract entered into with defendants. We conclude that the district court may exercise personal jurisdiction over defendants and such jurisdiction comports with due process. We therefore reverse and remand.
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff-appellant EFI, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of busi *1347 ness in Foster City, California, is a world leader in the area of software and hardware imaging solutions for network printing. EFI develops, manufactures, and sells print controllers, which are devices that control printers and copiers. Defendant-appellee Kolbet Labs is a Nevada corporation. EFI believes that defendant-appellee Coyle, a Nevada resident, does business as Kolbet Labs. Both Coyle and Kolbet Labs engage in the research and development of computer software and hardware technology that can be used to more efficiently control digital printers and copiers.
Coyle filed United States Patent Application No. 08/987/212 (“the '212 application”) on December 9, 1997, which eventually issued as the '746 patent on January 8, 2002. The subject matter of the '212 application concerned an interface card for coupling a computer to an external device. Coyle hired two different California firms to prosecute the '212 application.
In late 1999 or early 2000, Coyle solicited EFI and proposed that EFI purchase defendants’ technology related to an interface card for controlling printers and copiers. Thereafter, on or about January 28, 2000, EFI and Kolbet Labs entered into a mutual nondisclosure agreement (“NDA”), which Coyle signed as “owner” of Kolbet Labs. The agreement addressed the treatment of certain confidential information disclosed during the course of discussing a “business possibility of mutual interest relating to digital image processing.” In the NDA, the parties agreed to restrict use of the confidential information to reviewing and discussing such information in order to determine “whether to enter into a business relationship with the other party.” The NDA was to terminate after a year, but the obligations of confidentiality as set forth would be binding on the parties for four years after the termination of the NDA. Finally, the NDA was “governed by and construed under the laws of the State of California, without reference to conflicts of laws principles.”
After the signing of the NDA, defendants solicited EFI in California repeatedly, providing information regarding defendants’ technology to EFI. At several different times around May and June 2000, Coyle’s attorney in California, Newton Lee, sent EFI various documents relating to the progress of the '212 application, including copies of selected parts of the '212 application. In December 2000, Coyle contacted EFI in California again to solicit EFI’s purchase of his technology. On December 13, 2000, two of defendants’ representatives visited EFI’s facility in California to demonstrate Coyle’s interface card. After the visit, EFI informed Coyle that it was not interested in purchasing the technology.
In September 2001, Coyle informed EFI by telephone that the claims of the '212 application had been allowed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, alleged that the allowed patent claims covered EFI’s print controllers, and continued to report further new developments in his technology. Coyle later that month continued to solicit EFI by sending documents identifying the claims that had been allowed and additional information on defendants’ technology.
Around the week of November 26, 2001, Coyle made telephone calls to EFI in California several times, alleging that EFI’s print controllers infringed the claims of the '212 application. In these phone calls, Coyle also alleged that EFI’s print controllers contained trade secret information belonging to Coyle and/or Kolbet Labs, *1348 and threatened to sue EFI for misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of the NDA. Coyle thereafter repeatedly threatened litigation throughout the next two weeks.
On December 11, 2001, before the '746 patent issued, EFI filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against defendants in the district court. EFI’s complaint alleged that (1) EFI did not misappropriate any trade secret information belonging to defendants by sales of its print controllers or otherwise, and (2) EFI did not breach any NDA with defendants. After the '746 patent issued on January 8, 2002, EFI amended its complaint to allege that the claims of the '746 patent were invalid. Subject matter jurisdiction over these three claims was alleged to exist pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1332, and 1338. Defendants moved to dismiss the amended complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction.
On March 26, 2002, the district court granted defendants’ motion pursuant to Rule 12(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ' (“Rule 12(b)(2)”). Applying Ninth Circuit law, the court held that EFI failed to show that defendants had purposefully directed its activities at California, thereby failing to establish that defendants had the “minimum contacts” in California necessary to justify the exercise of jurisdiction over defendants. EFI timely appealed, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1).
II. DISCUSSION
A. Choice of Law and Standard of Review
We begin with the choice-of-law question: whether the personal jurisdiction analysis in this case is pursuant to Federal Circuit or regional circuit law. The district court applied Ninth Circuit law of personal jurisdiction to all three claims in the complaint. The parties concur that the district court erred in doing so, asserting that Federal Circuit law should apply to all three claims. We disagree with both the district court and the parties in this regard because Federal Circuit law applies to the patent claim and Ninth Circuit law applies to the state law claims.
Our prior decisions make clear that where the personal jurisdictional inquiry is “intimately involved with the substance of the patent laws,” we apply Federal Circuit law.
Akro Corp. v. Luker,
These claims therefore are governed not by Federal Circuit but regional circuit law, here that of the Ninth Circuit. 1
Where the facts upon which the jurisdictional inquiry turns are undisputed,
*1349
both the Ninth and Federal Circuits review
de novo
whether a district court has personal jurisdiction over a defendant.
Akro,
B. Specific Jurisdiction
EFI does not assert general jurisdiction in this ease. Under general jurisdiction, the exercise of jurisdiction is proper where the defendant has continuous and systematic contacts,
Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia,
S.A. v.
Hall,
Determining whether specific personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant is proper entails two inquiries: whether a forum state’s long-arm statute permits service of process, and whether the assertion of jurisdiction would be inconsistent with due process.
Inamed Corp. v. Kuzmak,
Under the governing framework of personal jurisdiction, as developed in the Supreme Court jurisprudence,
3
the exercise of jurisdiction over nonresident defendants of a forum state is not inconsistent with due process if the nonresident defendants have certain “minimum contacts” with the forum “such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend ‘traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.’ ”
Int’l Shoe v. Washington,
1. Patent Invalidity Claim
As discussed
supra
Part U.A., Federal Circuit law applies to the question of whether the district court properly could exercise personal jurisdiction over defendants as to the patent invalidity claim. This court has adopted a three-factor test embodying the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on specific personal jurisdiction. To determine whether jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant comports with due process, we look to whether (1) the defendant purposefully directed its activities at residents of the forum state, (2) the claim arises out of or relates to the defendant’s activities with the forum state, and (3) assertion of personal jurisdiction is reasonable and fair.
Inamed,
a. “Purposefully directed”
We first conclude that defendants’ contacts were “purposefully directed” at California. First, Coyle repeatedly threat
*1351
ened EFI over the telephone in November 2001. We have held that mere threats of infringement directed at the forum state are not sufficient to satisfy due process requirements when exercising jurisdiction over an out-of-state patentee.
Red Wing Shoe Co. v. Hockerson-Halberstadt, Inc.,
b. “Arises out of or relates to”
We next examine whether EFI’s declaratory claim of patent invalidity arises out of or is related to defendants’ alleged contacts with California.
See Akro,
c. “Reasonable and fair”
Once the plaintiff has shown that there are sufficient minimum contacts to satisfy due process, it becomes defendants’ burden to present a “compelling case that the presence of some other con
*1352
siderations would render jurisdiction unreasonable.”
Burger King,
In view of the above, defendants’ arguments fail to convince the court that this is one of the “rare” situations in which sufficient minimum contacts exist but where the exercise of jurisdiction would be unreasonable.
See Beverly Hills Fan Co. v. Royal Sovereign Corp.,
2. State Law Claims
EFI has also asserted two state law claims of non-breach of contract and non-misappropriation of trade secrets. We apply Ninth Circuit law in determining whether personal jurisdiction over defendants as to these claims would comport with due process. Under Ninth Circuit law, EFI is required to show that (1) defendants performed some act or consummated some transaction within the forum or otherwise purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of conducting activities in California, thereby invoking the benefits and protections of its laws, (2) EFI’s claims arise out of defendants’ California-related activities, and (3) the exercise of jurisdiction would be reasonable.
Omeluk v. Langsten Slip & Batbyggeri A/S,
a. Nonr-Breaeh of Contract Claim
We first consider whether jurisdiction over defendants as to EFI’s non-breach of contract claim is proper. Purposeful availment, the first part of the Ninth Circuit test, requires that defendants “performed some type of affirmative conduct which allows or promotes the transaction of business within the forum state.”
Sher,
As the district court recognized, the only obligation created by the NDA was the obligation of nondisclosure. Had the parties, after entering into the NDA, then failed to enter into a course of dealing invoking these principles of nondisclosure, the obligation of nondisclosure in the NDA would be a hollow one. In that case, we might agree with the district court that that there were no significant contacts made by defendants that would justify the exercise of jurisdiction over them. However, the parties’ course of dealing subsequent to the NDA persuades us otherwise. Under the NDA, the parties agreed to be bound, until four years following termination of the agreement, by the confidentiality principles for all pertinent information exchanged between the parties from January 28, 2000, when the NDA was executed, until January 28, 2001, when the NDA terminated. These confidentiality principles thus governed defendants’ multiple contacts to California during 2000, when defendants allegedly conveyed information about and solicited EFI to purchase defendants’ technology. These contacts include the phone and mail contacts made by Coyle and his California attorney Lee, as well as the visit of defendants’ representatives to EFI’s facility. That no actual sales agreement arose out of these contacts does not negate the fact that, in making these contacts, defendants took affirmative conduct to promote “the transaction of business within the forum state.”
Sher,
Moreover, the NDA included a California choice-of-law clause. As defendants correctly point out, a choice-of-law clause does not carry the same dispositive weight as a choiee-of-forum clause in a personal jurisdiction analysis.
Docksider Ltd. v. Sea Tech, Ltd.,
Thus, here we have defendants’ repeated communications with and solicitation of EFI’s business in California, as well as the NDA itself, which envisioned and governed such communications and which included a California choice-of-law clause. In light of these contacts, we conclude that EFI has set forth a sufficient
-prima facie
case that the parties’ “prior negotiations and contemplated future consequences, along with the terms of the contract and the parties’ actual course of dealing,”
id.
at 479,
We next turn to the second part of the personal jurisdiction inquiry: whether a particular claim arises out of forum-related
*1354
activities. The Ninth Circuit relies on a “but for” test in determining the second prong.
Ballard v. Savage,
Finally, we examine whether jurisdiction over defendants as to the non-breach of contract claim is reasonable. The Ninth Circuit considers the following factors, as distilled from the Supreme Court’s decision in
Burger King:
(1) the extent of the defendant’s purposeful injection into the forum, (2) the burden on the defendant, (3) the extent of conflict with the sovereignty of defendants’ state, (4) the forum state’s interest in adjudicating the dispute, (5) the most efficient resolution of the controversy, (6) the importance of the forum to the plaintiffs interest in convenient and efficient relief, and (7) the existence of an alternative forum.
Bancroft,
b. Non-Misappropriation of Trade Secrets Claim
We also conclude that the district court’s exercise of jurisdiction over defendants as to EFI’s non-misappropriation of trade secrets claim would comport with due process. First, defendants purposefully availed themselves of the privilege of conducting activities in California, thereby invoking the bénefits and protections of the laws of California. As related above, defendants allegedly solicited EFI in California repeatedly — including phone calls and other communications directed to EFI in California, as well as a visit to EFI — to buy defendants’ technology. Second, but for these contacts, EFI would not have filed an action seeking a declaration of non-misappropriation of trade secrets. EFI’s claim, and any facts necessary to proving or disproving it, would necessarily coalesce out of the information disclosed during defendants’ communications to California. Finally, upon consideration of the reasonableness factors adopted by the Ninth Circuit, defendants fail to overcome the presumption that the exercise of jurisdiction would be reasonable.
III. CONCLUSION
Because we hold that EFI established a prima facie case that personal jurisdiction over defendants would be proper, we re *1355 verse the district court’s dismissal of EFI’s complaint and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Costs to appellant.
Notes
. Although not addressed by the parties, the district court would also have personal juris
*1349
diction over defendants as to the two state law claims provided that personal jurisdiction existed as to the patent claim and there was supplemental jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367 existed as to the state law claims.
Silent Drive, Inc., v. Strong Indus., Inc.,
. Because EFI alleges that Coyle does business as Kolbet Labs, all contacts made by Coyle are also attributable to Kolbet Labs. It therefore is unnecessary to conduct separate minimum contact analyses with respect to each defendant in this case.
. We apply the framework of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as developed by the Supreme Court in
International Shoe v. Washington,
