Washington – The House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet will hold a hearing today on the growing use of the International Trade Commission (ITC) as a venue for U.S. and foreign companies to dubiously block products under claims of patent infringement. Members of Congress are likely to examine the use of the ITC by foreign corporations against American companies.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association regularly files public interest comments with the ITC regarding its decisions, including comments filed last year in response to public input on a request to block Apple Watches from importation into the U.S. due to a dispute over one of the tens of thousands of patents that enable such technology.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Senior Counsel for Innovation Policy Josh Landau:
“The ITC was established to protect American companies from unfair foreign competition, especially from competitors who couldn’t be brought into a U.S. district court. All too often, the ITC is being used against American companies, even though they can easily be sued in district court. Rather than compete in the marketplace on the merits of their technology, competitors—foreign and domestic alike—go to the ITC to try to keep products off the market entirely using a process lacking many of the protections of district court litigation.”