Importer Can Challenge CBP's Exclusion of Redesigned Product for Patent Infringement, CIT Says
An importer may protest CBP’s exclusion of its redesigned product for patent infringement under a Section 337 exclusion order, the Court of International Trade said in a March 4 decision. The government argued that CBP’s exclusion of Wirtgen road milling…
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machines was not protestable because CBP was simply enforcing the International Trade Commission’s exclusion order, and that the decision should have instead been raised with the ITC and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. But CIT, noting that the ITC in the underlying Section 337 investigation specifically declined to address the redesigned products, found that CBP acted on its own authority to exclude the road milling machines, and as a result its decision could be protested. The trade court denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case as outside its jurisdiction.