A Survey of Trade Secret Investigations at the International Trade Commission: A Model for Future Litigants
42 Columbia Science and Technology Law Review 41, Fall 2013
49 Pages Posted: 8 Dec 2013
Date Written: 2013
Abstract
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) hosts some of the world’s most contentious billion-dollar patent litigants, who seek quick turnaround times and the prospect of a broad exclusion order against infringing imports. For almost forty years, parties have treated it as an alternative (or supplement) to patent litigation. Yet the statutory authority governing ITC violations makes room for many other types of unfair intellectual property violations to be investigated by the Commission as well, including, significantly, trade secret misappropriation. Practitioners have begun to take notice. Since the notorious TianRui appellate decision, the ITC has initiated five trade secret investigations, all sharing similar fact patterns. The time has long come for an exhaustive survey of all of the trade secret cases the ITC has handled over the years, an elucidation of the current ITC law of trade secrets, and a comprehensive guide that future parties can follow in bringing an investigation. This article answers that long-felt need.
Keywords: ITC, Trade Secrets, Misappropriation, Tianrui, 337, China
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