Megaupload requested that the Federal Court consider a supplemental brief provided to the Court today arguing for dismissal. The supplemental brief was provided to the Court in an effort to respond to issues raised at the recent hearing.
Megaupload argues in the supplemental brief that the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the United States and Hong Kong (“MLAT”) is not a substitute for the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure governing service of a summons on a corporate defendant. The MLAT does not purport to expand the personal jurisdiction of the courts of the United States or otherwise alter the express terms of the Federal Rules. It is merely a mechanism to serve documents extraterritorially where U.S. law already authorizes extraterritorial service. It permits nothing more. Where the Federal Rules require domestic service, like in the instant case, MLATs play no role at all, and certainly do not alter the Federal Rules.