17
Nov
On November 17, 2009, the International Trade Commission issued a notice determining not to review ALJ Robert K. Rogers, Jr.’s October 15, 2009 Initial Determination (“ID”) granting Complainant Saxon Innovations, LLC’s (“Saxon”) motion for summary determination that it has met the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement in Certain Electronic Devices, Including Handheld Wireless Communications Devices (Inv. No. 337-TA-667/337-TA-673).  According to the notice, Saxon filed its motion based on the activities of its licensee, Motorola, Inc., pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1337(a)(3)(C).

This case and, in particular, this issue as to whether Saxon could satisfy the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement has been closely watched by many ITC practitioners since Saxon is a patent-holding company whose only business is licensing and enforcing patents.  See, for example, this article, in which a reporter for IP Law & Business noted that Saxon was “pushing the envelope in terms of what constitutes a ‘domestic industry.’”  See also our February 24, 2009 post.

By determining not to review the ID, the Commission appears to have confirmed that patent holding companies with similar domestic industry activities can enforce intellectual property rights at the ITC.