On January 13, 2012, the U.S. International Trade Commission issued a press release announcing their vote to institute an investigation of Certain Portable Communication Devices (Inv. No. 337-TA-827).

The investigation is based on a December 2, 2011 complaint and December 16, 2011 amended complaint filed by Digitude Innovations LLC of Alexandria, Virginia alleging violation of Section 337 in the importation into the U.S. and sale of certain portable communication devices that infringe one or more claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,926,636, 5,929,655, 6,208,879, and 6,456,841.  See our December 8, 2011 post for more details.

According to the Notice of Investigation, the ITC has identified the following entities as respondents in this investigation: 

• Research In Motion Ltd. of Canada


• Research In Motion Corp. of Irving, Texas


• HTC Corporation of Taiwan


• HTC America, Inc. of Bellevue, Washington


• LG Electronics, Inc. of South Korea


• LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc. of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey


• LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. of San Diego, California


• Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. of Libertyville, Illinois


• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. of South Korea


• Samsung Electronics America, Inc. of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey


• Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC of Richardson, Texas


• Sony Corporation of Japan


• Sony Corporation of America of New York, New York


• Sony Electronics, Inc. of San Diego, California


• Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB of Sweden


• Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications (USA) Inc. of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina


• Amazon.com, Inc. of Seattle, Washington


• Nokia Corporation of Finland


•  Nokia Inc. of Irving, Texas


• Pantech & Curitel Communication, Inc. of South Korea


• Pantech Wireless, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia

Lastly, Chief ALJ Charles E. Bullock issued a notice indicating that Robert K. Rogers, Jr. will be the presiding Administrative Law Judge in this investigation.