ITC
domestic companies against foreign businesses selling infringing products in the US, according to Colleen Chien, a law professor at Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara University, it’s being used by trolls to bar the sale of products made by US companies.
Speaking at a House of Representatives
subcommittee hearing, Chien said that since 2010, patent trolls had made complaints against more than 300 defendants at the USITC, more than 60 percent of which were domestic companies. Both Ford Motors and IT firm Cisco, which spent more than $13 million defending a claim brought against it by a Canadian company, concurred.
In response, the ITC released a statement arguing that only 8 percent of Section 337 complaints were filed by category two NPEs, and only one was successful in obtaining an exclusion order.
The commission added that the 61.5 percent settlement rate in category two NPE investigations was inconclusive due to the limited number of completed investigations, and cited the US Court of Appeal’s 2008 decision to reject the practice of including third party downstream products in remedial orders to explain the increasing number of respondents in complaint filings.
“AFTER TWO YEARS OF RECORD FILINGS, THE COMMISSION IS PREDICTING A DECLINE IN THE NUMBER OF NEW COMPLAINTS
FOR 2012, BUT THIS HAS NOT LED TO A LIGHTER WORKLOAD.”
Trade reports
As well as investigating patent infringement claims, the commission also publishes reports on trade issues such as the economic impact of IP infringement abroad. In 2011, the ITC surveyed more than 5000 US companies to determine the damage to the US economy caused by IP infringement in China.
Tere have been no similar studies conducted into the effects of IP infringement this year, but research
has been done into trade facilitation in Africa and in July, the commission published Te Year in Trade 2011—the 63rd annual roundup of operations under the Trade Agreement programme. It will continue to conduct research into IP and trade relations as requested by Congress.
New appointments
Next year, the ITC will be chaired by Irving Williamson, who was sworn in by President George W Bush in 2007. Aſter serving two years as vice chairman from 2010 until June this year, Williamson was designated chair by President Obama and will now serve the term ending June 2014.
Te commission will also be welcoming a new member: in November 2011, Obama announced his intent to nominate Meredith Broadbent, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to succeed commissioner Deanna Okun. Okun has been with the ITC since 2000 and while her commission expired in June 2008, she may continue to serve as commissioner until Broadbent is sworn in—the date has not yet been confirmed.
www.worldipreview.com
World Intellectual Property Review September/October 2012
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