Law360, New York (January 03, 2014, 12:08 PM ET) -- In
a potentially far-reaching decision, the Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit in Suprema Inc. and Mentalix Inc. v. U.S.
International Trade Commission vacated an ITC determination based
on induced infringement, holding that the commission has no
authority under Section 337 to find a violation in an inducement
case involving method claims where the articles do not directly
infringe at the time of importation.1
At first glance, the opinion appeared to destabilize decades of
established ITC law, under which indirect infringement could form
the basis of a Section 337 violation, even where the final act of
direct infringement took place in the United States after
importation. A closer reading of the decision in Suprema make
clear, however, that the court deliberately sought to narrow the
scope of its decision to cases involving induced infringement under
§ 271(b) of the Patent Act — thereby maintaining
