The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the International Trade Commission’s determination that imports of Nintendo’s Wii video game system are not violating Section 337 by infringing on Motiva’s patents. The ITC had found that Motiva was not in the process of establishing a domestic industry. The company’s only activity related to the patents being a lawsuit against Nintendo. The court said the ITC’s determination was supported by the record -- Motiva was not close to developing a product that would utilize the patented technologies, and hadn’t been actively attempting to develop one for years. CAFC also pointed to Motiva’s decision not to ask for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit, as well as the delay of three years between the launch of the Wii and Motiva’s ITC complaint, to show that Motiva’s owners had only filed the lawsuit for financial gain, not to clear the way for establishing an industry in the U.S.

The Court of International Trade ruled that laser sintering machines that use an additive manufacturing process to build metal and plastic objects are correctly classified under residual provisions for machinery, instead of as machine tools or laser welders. Both EOS and the government argued that technology in each category has advanced beyond what the writers of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule provisions for those products could have anticipated. But CIT, turning to common definitions of each, said neither category could be stretched to include the laser sintering machines.

Riddell appealed a Court of International Trade decision that the company’s football pants, jerseys, and girdles are correctly classified for tariff purposes as apparel, and not sports equipment. The football uniform components were imported without pads, and as goods are classified in their condition as imported, they did not qualify as sports protective equipment, CIT had said (see 13032221).

Mueller Comercial appealed a Court of International Trade ruling that affirmed the Commerce Department’s decision to partially apply adverse facts available (AFA) to determine Mueller’s antidumping duty rate, despite Mueller’s full cooperation in the 2008-09 AD administrative review on circular welded non-alloy steel pipe from Mexico (A-201-805). Commerce had used AFA on incomplete cost data needed from one of Mueller’s suppliers. CIT said that the uncooperative supplier would have benefited from a lower AD rate without the partial application of AFA, so use of AFA was justified, despite the fact that Mueller cooperated. Despite ruling in December (see 12122604), the court didn’t enter judgment until May 2.

The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG) is hopeful an April 22 forfeiture complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland will allow the group to address a number of issues it hadn't yet been able to litigate over, said Peter Tompa, a lawyer with Bailey and Ehrenberg who is representing ACCG. "We are reviewing the forfeiture complaint and will file a claim and answer in the time frame allowed," he said by email.

A Taiwanese father and his Chicago-dwelling son were charged with allegedly conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as circumventing Treasury Department sanctions, the Bureau of Industry and Security announced May 6. Hsien Tai Tsai, also known as Alex Tsai, and Yueh-Hsun Tsai, also known as Gary Tsai, were charged in U.S. District Court in Chicago with three counts each of conspiring to defraud the U.S. in its enforcement of laws and regulations prohibiting weapons of mass destruction proliferation, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and money laundering.

The Court of International Trade upheld a Commerce Department anti-circumvention ruling that made Vietnamese company Max Fortune’s exports subject to the antidumping duty order on tissue paper products from China (A-570-894). Max Fortune had challenged Commerce’s decision to apply adverse facts available, as well as the agency’s decision to require cash deposits instead of allowing the company to certify the origin of its exports.

A Mexican citizen charged in a scheme to defraud the Export-Import Bank through wire and bank fraud, leading to a Bank loss of more than $2.5 million, was arrested in El Paso April 23. Maria de Jesus Ortiz-Saldivar, 47, was charged in an October 2011 federal indictment, which says that between January 2005 and February 2009, Ortiz-Saldivar and others allegedly sent false loan applications, financial statements and other documents to obtain Ex-Im guaranteed loans, according to an Ex-Im Office of the Inspector General statement. The loans were purportedly for the purchase and export of U.S. goods into Mexico, Ex-Im said. Ortiz-Saldivar was a former accountant for Centro Oncologico de Norte S.A., a purported cancer treatment center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Eight other Mexican fugitives are still wanted in connection with this case, Ex-Im said.

Port workers are entitled to Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act benefits only if their worksites directly abut navigable waters, said the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. As a result, New Orleans Depot Services (NODSI) does not have to pay a workers compensation claim to a container mechanic that worked at its facility 300 yards from the Intracoastal Canal in New Orleans, it said. The appeals court’s ruling overturns its own precedent on the issue, adopting instead the 3rd Circuit’s more restrictive definition of “adjoining” navigable waters.

Deckers Corporation appealed the Court of International Trade’s April 12 dismissal of its challenge to CBP’s classification of its Teva sports sandals. Deckers had argued they should be classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) as sports footwear, but CBP instead found them to be footwear with open toes or open heels. The sandals were made for running and training, and the openings don’t detract from that function, Deckers had argued. CIT, though sympathetic, said it couldn’t ignore the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s ruling on similar footwear from Deckers in a test case the company had itself requested.