Steptoe Hosts Section 337 Teleconference

(A Steptoe-sponsored event)
February 23, 2006

On Thursday, February 23, 2006, from 1:00 pm until 2:15 pm EST, please join our panelists—Charles Schill, Alice Kipel, Herbert Shelley, and Stuart Huang—as they discuss Section 337 litigation in the International Trade Commisison from both the complainant’s and respondent’s perspectives and how you can use Section 337 to your company's competitive advantage. Section 337 prohibits unfair acts and unfair trade practices related to importing goods into the United States.

Used effectively before the ITC, it can be a swift, powerful tool to address such unfair acts as patent, trademark, and copyright infringement.

For almost 30 years, Steptoe attorneys, representing both complainants and respondents, have litigated a wide variety of unfair import cases under Section 337, including very complex matters that involve every possible act that the ITC considers unfair.

Steptoe attorneys have handled over 75 Section 337 cases—litigating many cases to final decisions, and settling and licensing in many others on terms favorable to our clients—which have involved a wide range of alleged unfair import practices:

Patent infringement
False designation of origin
Registered and common-law trademark infringement
False labeling
Trade dress misappropriation
Passing off
Copyright infringement
Product disparagement
Failure to mark country of origin
Tortious interference with contractual relations
False advertising
Trade secret misappropriation

Steptoe's attorneys boast considerable familiarity with the ITC; one has worked as a senior investigative attorney at the ITC and is on the Executive Committee for the ITC Trial Lawyers Association, the only association of attorneys dedicated solely to practice under Section 337; another attorney served as president of the association for 2003-2004.

Steptoe's Section 337 practice is part of the firm’s International Trade Department and the Intellectual Property group in the Technology Department, which together include over 80 practitioners. In addition, many members of the firm's Litigation Department have experience with Section 337 cases.