CAFC Upholds ITC Misappropriation and Injury Rulings in China Railcar Wheels
After Amsted Industries, Inc. licensed its secret railcar wheel manufacturing processes to a Chinese manufacturer, a different firm, TianRui Group Company Limited hired key employees of the licensee (who had signed confidentiality agreements) and began exporting wheels made with the…
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Amsted process to the U.S. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a section 337 ruling by the International Trade Commission that TianRui had misappropriated Amsted’s processes, and also agreed with the ITC that the domestic U.S. industry was injured or threatened by the resulting imports, even though the production processes at issue are not currently in use within the U.S. (A dissenting justice argued that the misappropriation of trade secrets occurred in China and concluded that “United States trade secret law simply does not extend to acts occurring entirely in China.“) (Appeal No. 2010-1395, dated 10/11/11)