Justia International Trade Opinion Summaries

Nooren owns patent 044, entitled “Use of a Preparation for Insulation/Sealing and Coating Purposes and Method for Sealing Manhole Covers,” which discloses a composition for insulating and protecting substrates, such as manhole covers, underground tanks, pipes, and cable sleeves, from corrosion, water ingress, and mechanical stresses. The patent is licensed exclusively to Stopaq, a Dutch company that designs and manufactures coatings and sealants that exhibit both viscous and elastic properties (visco-elasticity) and are designed for corrosion protection and waterproofing. Kleiss, a Dutch company, manufactures similar products that prevent corrosion and protect against leaks, which are distributed in the U.S. by Amcorr. Kleiss and Amcorr sought a declaratory judgment in the Netherlands that their products did not infringe the 044 patent. Nooren filed suit in the U.S., alleging infringement. The parties agreed to focus on the phrase “a filler comprising a plurality of fractions each comprising different size particles, and wherein said different fractions have different particle size distributions” in the only independent claim in the patent. The court granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Amcorr. The Federal Circuit vacated, holding that the district court erred in at least on claim construction. View "Frans Nooren Afdichtingssystem v. Stopaq Amcorr Inc." on Justia Law

LSI imported beef jerky products consisting of sliced, cooked, cured, and dried meat seasoned with salt and other spices and flavors from New Zealand and Brazil. The manufacturing process for the imported jerky involves curing the sliced boneless beef in a mixture of seasoning, sodium nitrate, and water for 24 to 48 hours, after which the meat is cooked and smoked for several hours. In airtight bags, the product has a shelf life of 18–20 months. U.S. Customs and Border Protection classified the subject beef jerky under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTSUS) subheading 1602.50.09 as “cured” prepared or preserved beef and denied LSI’s protests to classify it under subheading 1602.50.2040 as “other” prepared or preserved beef. LSI filed suit in the Court of International Trade, which granted the government summary judgment. The court considered LSI’s arguments that beef jerky is defined more by its dehydrated properties than by the curing process, but found that subheading 1602.50.09 included all forms of the named article, even improved forms. The Federal Circuit affirmed. View "Link Snacks, Inc. v. United States" on Justia Law

A number of suits have challenged the accuracy of the warning label on Pradaxa, a prescription blood-thinning drug manufactured by Boehringer. The litigation is in the discovery stage. The district judge presiding over the litigation imposed sanctions on Boehringer for discovery abuse. Boehringer sought a writ of mandamus quashing the sanctions, which included fines, totaling almost $1 million and also ordered that plaintiffs’ depositions of 13 Boehringer employees, all of whom work in Germany be conducted at “a place convenient to the [plaintiffs] and [to] the defendants’ [Boehringer’s] United States counsel,” presumably in the United States. The parties had previously agreed to Amsterdam as the location. The Seventh Circuit rescinded the order with respect to the depositions but otherwise denied mandamus. View "Boehringer Ingelheim Pharm. v. Herndon" on Justia Law

After receiving petitions from the Coalition, the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated antidumping (19 U.S.C. 1673) and countervailing duty (19 U.S.C. 1671) investigations covering utility scale wind towers from China and an antidumping investigation covering Vietnam. The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a preliminary determination that there was a reasonable indication of threat of material injury to a domestic industry by reason of the imports. Commerce issued a preliminary affirmative countervailing duty determination with respect to imports from China and preliminary affirmative antidumping duty determinations with respect to imports from China and Vietnam. Commerce instructed Customs and Border Protection to suspend liquidation of all entries of the subject merchandise and require cash deposits for the entries. Commerce then made final affirmative determinations. ITC issued a final affirmative determination in an evenly-divided vote, but of the six Commissioners on the panel, three found neither material injury nor threat of injury, two determined that the industry had suffered present material injury, and a third determined that the domestic industry was threatened with material injury, but that the domestic industry would not have suffered material injury in the absence of the provisional measures. Commerce then issued antidumping and countervailing duty orders. Commerce applied the “Special Rule,” 19 U.S.C. 1671e(b)(2) and 1673e(b)(2), making the orders effective prospectively from the publication of the ITC Determination. The orders indicated that Commerce would instruct Customs to terminate the suspension of liquidation and refund deposits made before the publication date of the ITC Determination. The Court of International Trade denied the Coalition’s motions for injunctions. The Federal Circuit affirmed. View "Wind Tower Trade Coal. v. United States" on Justia Law

In 2004 GEA, a German company, agreed to sell a subsidiary, DNK, to Flex‐N‐Gate, a U.S. manufacturer for €430 million. The contract required arbitration of all disputes in Germany. The sale did not close. GEA initiated arbitration before the Arbitral Tribunal of the German Institution of Arbitration. The arbitration was pending in 2009 when GEA filed suit in an Illinois federal district court, against Flex‐N‐Gate and its CEO, Khan, alleging that the defendants had fraudulently induced it to enter into the contract; that Khan stripped the company of assets so that it would be unable to pay any arbitration award; and that Khan was Flex‐N‐Gate’s alter ego. GEA then asked the district judge to stay proceedings, including discovery. The judge declined to stay discovery. GEA filed a notice of appeal after the German arbitration panel awarded GEA damages and costs totaling $293.3 million. The Seventh Circuit dismissed GEA’s appeal as moot, but the German Higher Regional Court in vacated the arbitration award. GEA renewed its motion. The district judge again denied the stay, stating that he was unsure how the arbitration would affect the case before him and didn’t want to wait to find out. The Seventh Circuit reversed. The district judge then imposed a stay, which it later lifted for the limited purpose of allowing Khan to conduct discovery aimed at preserving evidence that might be germane to GEA’s claims against him in the district court suit. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, first holding that it had appellate jurisdiction.View "GEA Group AG v. Baker" on Justia Law

This case involved the disappearance of nearly 2,000 boxes of Christmas lights while in transit from China to Mexico. Mari Jose, a Mexican corporation engaged in the import and export business, filed suit against Transmaritime, a logistics company, for loss of its goods in transit under the Carmack Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C. 14706. On appeal, Transmaritime challenged the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Mari Jose. The court concluded that the district court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of Mari Jose because Mari Jose failed to establish the first element of its prima facie case under the Carmack Amendment: delivery of the goods in good condition to the carrier. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Distribuidora Mari Jose, S.A. v. Transmaritime, Inc." on Justia Law

In 1997, the U.S. Department of Commerce determined, under 19 U.S.C. 1673b, that freshwater crawfish tail meat from China was being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value and directed Customs to suspend final computation of duties on such entries and to require a deposit or bond to cover estimated duties. In 2000-2001, New Phoenix made entries of the product. The exporters were subject to “new shipper” review to determine whether they were entitled to antidumping-duty rates distinct from the default rate. Each of five bonds issued by Great American to cover anticipated duties was for $1,219,458 and was signed by Davis and accepted by the government, although the power-of-attorney filed with Customs indicated a limit of $1 million on his authority. Great American later revoked his authority. In 2003, Commerce published final results, finding that the exporter was not entitled to a different rate and sought payment from New Phoenix and Great American. The amount owed is greater than the amounts of the bonds. The trial court granted the government summary judgment, without pre- and post-judgment interest, finding that the government did not timely address those issues. The Federal Circuit affirmed that the bonds were not enforceable beyond Davis’s stated authority and the denial of pre-judgment interest View "United States v. Great Am. Ins. Co" on Justia Law

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Commerce found that woven laminated sacks exported from China were being sold in the U.S. at less than fair market value and issued an antidumping duty order under 19 U.S.C. 1673. In 2009, Commerce initiated administrative review of that order for periods, during which AMS had imported sacks made from fabric sourced in China, undisputedly subject to the order; and sacks made from fabric imported into China from other countries. Commerce investigated, but did not initiate formal scope inquiry. AMS argued that a ruling obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided that the sacks produced from non-Chinese fabric were deemed to be from the country of origin of the fabric, not subject to the order and declared a non-Chinese origin for sacks made with non-Chinese fabric. Commerce concluded that China was the country of origin of sacks made with non-Chinese fabric under a substantial transformation analysis, then issued a “clarification” of its instructions to Customs to “suspend liquidation of all [laminated woven sacks] from [China], regardless of the origin of the woven fabric,… on or after January 31, 2008.” The Trade Court sustained application of a country-wide rate; the Federal Circuit affirmed. Following a second administrative review, the trade court held that Commerce violated its own regulations by instructing Customs to retroactively suspend liquidation of entries of the sacks made with non-Chinese fabric The Federal Circuit affirmed. View "AMS Assocs, Inc. v. United States" on Justia Law

Cross Match claimed that Suprema and Mentalix violated 19 U.S.C. 1337(a)(1)(B)(i) by importing articles that infringe or are used to infringe its patents. The International Trade Commission entered a limited exclusion order barring importation of certain optical scanning devices, finding that Mentalix directly infringed a method claim by using its own software with imported Suprema scanners and found that Suprema induced that infringement and that certain of Suprema’s imported optical scanners directly infringe other claims of the 993 patent. The Commission found no infringement of the 562 patent. The Commission held that Suprema and Mentalix failed to prove that the 993 patent was invalid as obvious over two prior art patents. The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded for revision of the order to bar only a subset of the scanners. An exclusion order based on a section 1337(a)(1)(B)(i) violation may not be predicated on a theory of induced infringement under 35 U.S.C. 271(b) where direct infringement does not occur until after importation of the articles the exclusion order would bar. View "Suprema, inc. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n" on Justia Law

Wilton imported 39 models of paper punches from Taiwan for use in scrapbooking and craft projects, to cut paper in a variety of shapes and sizes. Except for one model, U.S. Customs and Border Protection initially liquidated the punches under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTSUS) subheading 8203.40.60 as “perforating punches and similar handtools” with a duty margin of 3.3%. Customs denied Wilton’s protests to classify them under the duty free HTSUS subheading 8441.10.00 as “cutting machines of all kinds.” The parties entered into a stipulation agreement to classify 23 models under subheading 8441.10.00 because they were too large to use in the hand. Customs maintained that subheading 8203.40.60 was proper for the 16 models that remained in dispute because they were “intended for use when held in the hand.” The U.S. Court of International Trade granted the government summary judgment, setting aside the stipulation and finding that the punches “prima facie fall under Heading 8203 as a perforating punch.” The Federal Circuit affirmed; the articles at issue are described eo nomine by HTSUS Heading 8203.40 View "Wilton Indus., Inc. v. United States" on Justia Law