The patent infringement cases brought by Tessera Inc., over alleged infringements of minimized semiconductor chip encapsulation technologies it owns and licenses, met a further setback at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The company ‘s unsuccessful appeal followed determinations by a review panel at the International Trade Commission that for some of the alleged infringements, there was no section 337 violation, and for the remainder, the patent right did not extend to later re-sales.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 31 - June 3, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled, in BenQ America Corporation v. U.S., to vacate a Court of International Trade decision to classify certain Dell™ LCD monitors1 as video monitors under HTS 8528 (5%) as opposed to duty-free automatic data processing (ADP) machines under HTS 8471. The CAFC remands the case to the CIT, which CAFC states should conduct a "principal use" analysis of the monitors to determine their correct classification.
The International Trade Commission has reversed its views and is no longer recommending the addition of a new Chapter 98 U.S. note and amended tariff numbers that would provide duty-free treatment to certain utilitarian textile and other articles that incorporate a festive design, decoration, emblem or motif. U.S. Customs and Border Protection had recommended these changes in light of a 2007 note added to Chapter 95 and an earlier court decision, Michael Simon Design.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced that it is terminating all of the remaining 100% duty rates imposed on certain products of European Union countries as a result of the EU’s failure to comply with the 1999 World Trade Organization rulings in the EU-U.S beef hormones dispute. The USTR states that it is taking this action due to a 2010 court ruling, even though the 100% duty rates had been set to expire in August 2012 under an agreement reached with the EU.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied requests by the government, the International Trade Commission, and a domestic manufacturer to rehear a recent challenge to the ITC's determination that German light-weight thermal paper (LWTP) imports threatened the U.S. industry with injury. Overruling ITC and the Court of International Trade, CAFC issued a remand instructing ITC to examine prices and dumping margins of subcategories within a class or kind of subject merchandise.
In a consolidated suit over the May 2005-April 2006 antidumping duty administrative review of ball bearings and parts thereof, seven Japanese producers challenged the International Trade Administration’s use of zeroing and the ITA’s methods for matching U.S. to home market sales for price comparisons. Noting that in a recent decision the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled the ITA’s continued use of zeroing in reviews after abandoning it in investigations was unsupported by law, the Court of International Trade ordered the ITA to reconsider its use of zeroing in the ball bearings review at issue. The CIT also ordered it to reconsider three aspects of its model matching methodology in response to the Japanese producers’ arguments. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 04/04/11 news, 11040408, for BP summary of CAFC decision overturning the continued use of zeroing in AD reviews.) (Slip Op. 11-52, dated 05/05/11)
The International Trade Administration is publishing a "Timken"1 notice that a recent court ruling is not in harmony with the ITA's final AD determination on steel threaded rod from China (A-570-932), and is amending its final determination and order to reduce the AD duty rate for one exporter/producer combination.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed the Court of International Trade's decision in Dell Products LP, v. U.S., that for tariff purposes, goods put up in sets for retail sale refers to goods that are offered to customers as a set for purchase rather than to a collection of goods that are assembled into a set after the customer has purchased them, in which case, the goods would be classified separately.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that it will begin distributing some of funds available under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, also known as the Byrd Amendment) starting sometime after March 31, 2011 and continue until each fiscal year from 2006 through 2010 has been completed.