The Commerce Department is issuing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on sodium nitrite from India (A-533-906/C-533-907). The orders, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Feb. 27, set permanent antidumping and countervailing duties, which will remain in place unless revoked by Commerce in a sunset or changed circumstances review. Commerce will now begin conducting annual administrative reviews, if requested, to determine final assessments of AD/CVD on importers and make changes to cash deposit rates.

Doris Johnson Hines, an intellectual property lawyer, is about to become the newest administrative law judge at the International Trade Commission, according to a Feb. 23 ITC news release. She will begin work on Feb. 27. She currently is a partner at Finnegan and has "extensive experience in intellectual property litigation in both the public and private sectors leading teams in U.S. district courts, the USITC, and before arbitration panels," the announcement said.

The International Trade Commission published notices in the Feb. 23 Federal Register on the following AD/CVD injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):

The International Trade Commission published notices in the Feb. 22 Federal Register on the following AD/CVD injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):

The International Trade Commission has ended a Section 337 investigation on imported smart thermostats and load control switches (ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1277) after finding no violation, according to a notice. The investigation followed a September 2021 complaint by Causam Enterprises, which alleged Alarm.com, Ecobee, EnergyHub, Itron, Resideo and Xylem were manufacturing and importing devices that infringed four of Causam's patents for power consumption reporting devices (see 2109010021).

The Biden administration won't overturn a limited exclusion order blocking the import of Apple Watches that the ITC found infringe on patents owned by AliveCor, a spokesperson in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative confirmed. AliveCor had said that the USTR told it the administration would not move to block the order during the 60-day presidential review period (see 2302210064). According to AliveCor, this is the first-ever limited exclusion order against Apple to clear presidential review, although the Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently ruled the underlying patents were invalid. An Apple spokesperson said the exclusion order will have no practical impact as enforcement is on hold pending AliveCor’s appeal of the PTAB ruling to the Federal Circuit.

The International Trade Commission posted Revision 1 to the 2023 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The update includes a technical correction to the USMCA rules of origin and a minor correction for organic surface-active agents (other than soap). The update also implements the extension through May of exclusions from Section 301 tariffs for 81 medical care products related to COVID-19 (see 2302020065) and implements corrections to descriptions and tariff numbers of two other Section 301 exclusions (see 2302090027). Also, the update removes Western Sahara from country designations and codes in the statistical annexes.

The International Trade Commission published notices in the Feb. 21 Federal Register on the following AD/CVD injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):

The Biden administration will purportedly not move to block a limited exclusion order from the International Trade Commission on Apple watches, according to AliveCor, the company that brought the underlying Section 337 complaint.

The International Trade Commission published notices in the Feb. 17 Federal Register on the following AD/CVD injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):