Akin Gump IP Lawyers Author Bloomberg Law Article on ITC’s Domestic Industry Requirement

Bloomberg Law has published the article “INSIGHT: International Trade Commission Rulings Provide Guide to Protect U.S. Patent Holders,” written by Akin Gump intellectual property partner Cono Carrano, counsel John Wittenzellner and associate Clark Gordon. The article looks at recent rulings by the International Trade Commission (ITC) regarding the domestic industry requirement and how it is applied to manufacturing, research and development, and licensing activities.

The authors note that the ITC is “a popular venue of choice for patent owners seeking to stop the importation of goods that infringe on their patents.” One requirement for the patent owners, however, is to “establish that a domestic industry for articles protected by each of the asserted patents exists, or is in the process of being established, in the United States.” That requirement, the authors say, consists of two prongs—one technical, the other economic.

After examining the two ITC cases in question—one pertaining to Philips’ LED technology and the other involving the company BiTMICRO—Carrano, Wittenzellner and Gordon conclude that the ITC “applies a flexible and broad standard with respect to the ‘economic’ prong of a domestic industry determination.” The proper assessment, they add, “is the nature of the alleged domestic industry activities and how ‘significant’ or ‘substantial’ those activities are to the articles protected by the intellectual property rights.”

To read the full article, please click here.