Enforcement Penalties At The ITC

Kate Cappaert along with Andrea Hugill and John C. Jarosz (Analysis Group, Inc.) authored a paper titled, "Enforcement Penalties at the ITC" for the Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business.

The U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC" or "Commission") has grown in importance as a venue for U.S. companies to pursue intellectual property ("IP") violators and to block the sale or importation of goods from overseas that infringe U.S. IP rights. Once a violation of the Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 is found, an order halting further infringement, including importation, is almost always entered. In theory, potentially sizeable penalties may be imposed on entities that do not comply with the terms of an import restriction. In practice, the terms of an import restriction are almost always honored, but when they are not, maximum enforcement penalties are rarely imposed. In fact, most penalties for non-defaulting respondents are one-third or less of