16
Aug
By Eric Schweibenz
On August 13, 2010 ALJ Carl C. Charneski issued the public version of the Recommended Determination on Remedy and Bonding (“RD”) (dated July 23, 2010) in Certain Machine Vision Software, Machine Vision Systems, and Products Containing Same (Inv. No. 337-TA-680).

By way of background, on July 16, 2010, ALJ Charneski determined that there was no violation of Section 337 in this investigation.  More specifically, he determined that none of the accused products practiced U.S. Patent Nos. 7,016,539 (the ‘539 patent) and 7,065,262 (the ‘262 patent), certain claims of the ‘262 patent were invalid as anticipated, and all asserted claims of the ‘262 and ‘539 patents were invalid for failure to claim patent-eligible subject matter.  See our July 16, 2010 post for more details.

In the RD, ALJ Charneski determined that in the event the Commission finds that one or more respondents have committed a violation of Section 337, it was undisputed that a limited exclusion order should issue.  However, to facilitate such an order’s proper enforcement, ALJ Charneski recommended using a certification provision to permit parties to certify that products with the pertinent software contain algorithms outside the scope of the exclusion order.  ALJ Charneski further recommended that a cease and desist order issue only against Respondent MVTec LLC, should it be found to have committed a violation, since only MVTEC LLC was shown to maintain a commercially significant product inventory in the United States.  Finally, according to the RD, in view of Complainants’ lack of evidence concerning the appropriate amount of any bond, ALJ Charneski recommended that no bond be required if the Commission issues a limited exclusion order.