Reprinted and/or posted with the permission of Daily Journal Corp. (2012).

It’s 4 p.m. on a Friday and your client calls in a panic after sending you a complaint for patent infringement, along with a lengthy set of discovery requests. You think the client must have something wrong — surely discovery could not have started in a patent case if you have not even responded to the complaint? Upon inspection of the complaint, as well as a notice of investigation, however, you realize the client is correct as the case is pending in front of the International Trade Commission — not a district court — and discovery responses are due in 10 days. Welcome to the fast-paced world of Section 337 investigations at the ITC.

General overview of Section 337 investigations.

Section 337 investigations are conducted to guard against unfair competition in import trade, especially patent and trademark infringement. 19 U.S.C Section 1337. The ITC does not award monetary damages, but has the unique ability to block infringing imports at the border. Investigations also differ from district court actions because they are heard by an administrative law judge, not a jury, and the Office of Unfair Import Investigations, who represents the public interest, typically assigns an OUII attorney to participate in the investigation...