Practice Before the International Trade Commission

The International Trade Commission (ITC) is an administrative agency designed to protect United States domestic industries from the importation of counterfeit or infringing products into the U.S. It has sweeping power to block any company from importing products if it finds importation, sale for importation, or sale after importation of those products is an “unfair trade act.” The program will focus on practice before the ITC and the importance of trial lawyer skills in such practice. This will be of interest to both U.S. and non-U.S. lawyers, hence it will have an international appeal. Part of the international appeal stems from the ability of non-U.S. companies to bring an action in the ITC. A number of recent ITC investigations have been filed by one foreign company seeking to prevent another foreign company from importing its products into the U.S. We will give a background of ITC litigation and explore how and why an agency set up to protect U.S. industries can be used by both U.S. and foreign companies as an alternative to traditional litigation and will discuss the importance of the skills of experienced trial lawyers in ITC actions.