ALJ Rogers Sanctions Kaneka In Certain Coenzyme Q10 Products (337-TA-790)
On May 17, 2012, ALJ Robert K. Rogers, Jr. issued Order No. 28 in Certain Coenzyme Q10 Products and Methods of Making Same (Inv. No. 337-TA-790).
In the Order, ALJ Rogers ordered Complainant Kaneka Corporation (“Kaneka”) to pay $1,692.80 in attorneys’ fees to Respondents Zhejiang Medicine Co., Ltd. (“ZMC”) and ZMC-USA L.L.C. (“ZMC-USA”) in view of Kaneka’s failure to comply with an earlier order. In that earlier order, ALJ Rogers determined that Kaneka must pay ZMC and ZMC-USA a sum equal to the attorneys’ fees spent on filing a motion to compel and for sanctions and requested that ZMC and ZMC-USA file a detailed accounting of the attorneys’ fees for which they believed that they were entitled. In response to ALJ Rogers’ request, ZMC and ZMC-USA submited a declaration explaining how much time an attorney responsible for handling the subject motion spent – at his billing rate of $460 per hour. According to the Order, Kaneka failed to file a timely response to the declaration.
Accordingly, ALJ Rogers determined that the amount requested by ZMC and ZMC-USA was a “reasonable estimate of the attorneys’ fees generated due to Kaneka’s failure to fully comply with Order No. 8” and ordered Kaneka to pay $1,692.80 as a monetary sanction.
