21
Mar
By Eric Schweibenz
On March 13, 2013, the International Trade Commission (“the Commission”) issued a notice in Certain Electronic Devices, Including Wireless Communication Devices, Portable Music and Data Processing Devices, and Tablet Computers (Inv. No. 337-TA-794).  In the notice, the Commission determined to extend the target date for completion of the investigation until May 31, 2013, and requested additional written submissions from the parties and the public on the issues set forth below.

By way of background, the investigation is based on a complaint filed by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC (collectively, “Samsung”) alleging violation of Section 337 by Respondent Apple Inc. (“Apple”) in the importation and sale of certain electronic devices, including wireless communication devices, portable music and data processing devices, and tablet computers that infringe one or more claims of certain U.S. patents.  See our August 1, 2011 post for more details.  On September 14, 2012, ALJ E. James Gildea issued a final initial determination (“ID”) finding no violation of Section 337 by Apple in this investigation.  Specifically, the ALJ found that U.S. Patent Nos. 7,706,348 (the ‘348 patent), 7,486,644 (the ‘644 patent) and 6,771,980 (the ‘980 patent) are valid but not infringed, and that U.S. Patent No. 7,450,114 (the ‘114 patent) is both invalid and not infringed.  ALJ Gildea also determined that the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement is satisfied for all four patents at issue, but that the technical prong is not satisfied for any of the asserted patents.  On November 19, 2012, the Commission determined to review the ID in its entirety and issued a notice requesting written submissions from the parties and the public on certain patent issues, the assertion of FRAND-related patents at the Commission, and on the issues of remedy, public interest and bonding.  See our November 20, 2012 post for more details.

According to the notice, the Commission determined to seek additional information on the potential effect on the public interest if the Commission were to order remedies against articles alleged to infringe the asserted claims of the ‘348 patent.  In particular, the Commission requested written submissions from the parties, interested government agencies, the Office of Unfair Import Investigations, and any other interested persons on the following issues:

In addition, the parties were requested to brief the following issues:

The Commission requested written submissions by April 3, 2013, and reply submissions by April 10, 2013.

Commissioner Aranoff dissented from the notice, issuing a memorandum stating that in her view, the parties and the public have already had several opportunities to present evidence and argument on the public interest issues relevant to this investigation.



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