On May 20, 2013, new rules of practice and procedure go into effect for International Trade Commission Section 337 Investigations, 19 C.F.R. Parts 201 and 210.1 Many of these rule changes were made for the purposes of making technical corrections or clarifications to the rules and will have little direct impact upon a complainant or respondent’s strategy in navigating through a Section 337 Investigation. However, some of the changes to the rules, particularly those changes to the rules governing the initiation of an Investigation (§210.12), the termination of an Investigation (§210.21), and the scope of discovery (§210.18), are worthy of attention.

Changes Relevant to Initiating a Section 337 Investigation -

The Commission has made three significant changes to the pleading requirements of a complaint alleging violation of Section 337 based on infringement of U.S. intellectual property rights. These changes include (1) increasing the particularity of the description of the domestic industry (§210.12(a)(6)(i) and (ii)); (2) specifying the relief requested (§210.12(a)(ii)); and (3) adding a “plain English” statement of the category of products accused (§210.12(12)).