Participants Included ITC Officials, U.S. Customs Attorneys and GCs of Global Corporations

CHICAGO, Ill. (May 2, 2017) - Perkins Coie co-hosted a seminar presenting and discussing updates on intellectual property (IP) litigation at the United States International Trade Commission (ITC). Among those attending and discussing updates to Section 337 Investigations (claims regarding IP rights to protect against importation of goods that misappropriate trade secrets or infringe U.S. patents, copyrights or trademarks) were ITC Commissioners, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), a representative from the ITC Office of Unfair Import Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection attorneys and in-house counsel from global corporations Amazon, Google, Baxter Healthcare, Technicolor and SanDisk. The event, co-sponsored with the ITC Trial Lawyers Association and John Marshall Law School, was held on April 27 at John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

Moderated by Perkins Coie partner and ITC Practice Group Co-Chair John Schnurer and Perkins Coie patent litigation partner Kevin Patariu, the series of panel discussions included:

• A Comparison of ITC and U.S. District Court Litigation
• Why is IP Litigation at the ITC Increasing?
• Litigating ITC IP Cases From An In-House Perspective
• What Happens After the ITC Issues an Exclusion Order?
• Best Practices and Litigation Advice from ITC Officials

Panelists and presenters included ITC Commissioner F. Scott Kieff, former ITC Commissioner Dean Pinkert, Administrative Law Judge Mary Joan McNamara, Office of Unfair Import Investigations Investigative Attorney Brian Koo, Alan Aprea of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Electronics Center, Alex Bamiagis, Office of Trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and in-house counsel from Amazon.com, Google, Baxter Healthcare, SanDisk, and Technicolor.

“Recent trends in IP litigation have increased interest in patent enforcement strategies involving the ITC and courts in Germany and China – and potentially the emerging Unified Patent Court. The ongoing debate as to whether the district court standard for obtaining injunctive relief should apply at the ITC is of great interest to future innovation and will continue to be long after the seminar. The presentation by U.S. Customs attorneys relating to the Section 177 procedure for approval of designs to avoid ITC exclusion orders provided a rare insight into a critical aspect of any ITC dispute,” said event organizer.

Please click here for a copy of the program, “Update on Intellectual Property Litigation at the US International Trade Commission.”

Perkins Coie’s IP practice includes more than 250 lawyers focused on IP litigation, patent and trademark prosecution, technology licensing, copyrights, and trade secret and unfair competition counseling. Its clients include companies in all technologies and industries from around the world. Perkins Coie attorneys have represented U.S., Chinese, Taiwanese, and other foreign companies in Section 337 investigations in a variety of technologies in the electrical, semiconductor, mechanical, and pharmaceutical fields. Attorneys in the IP practice also have extensive experience litigating patent, copyright and trademark infringement actions, internet-related disputes, and gray market and anti-counterfeiting claims for companies in the software, online retail, search and electronics industries. Perkins Coie’s clients benefit from the firm’s interdisciplinary approach to matters, which combines extensive legal and technical experience with strong corporate and litigation resources in a leading technology law firm.

Perkins Coie is a leading international law firm that is known for providing high-value, strategic solutions and extraordinary client service on matters vital to our clients’ success. With more than 1,200 lawyers in offices across the United States and Asia, we provide a full array of corporate, commercial litigation, intellectual property, and regulatory legal advice to a broad range of clients, including many of the world’s most innovative companies and industry leaders as well as public and not-for-profit organizations.

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