This article appeared in The Intellectual Property Strategist, an ALM/Law Journal Newsletters publication that provides a practical source of both business and litigation tactics in the fast-changing area of intellectual property law, including litigating IP rights, patent damages, venue and infringement issues, inter partes review, trademarks on social media – and more.

The broadest remedy that the International Trade Commission (ITC or the Commission) can deliver under 19 U.S.C. §1337 (Section 337) is a General Exclusion Order (GEO), which blocks importation of all infringing goods regardless of source, even by importers who were not respondents in the ITC investigation. GEOs are more difficult to obtain than the more common Limited Exclusion Order (LEO) as they require additional proof either that an LEO will not be enough to stop the infringing imports or that there is a widespread pattern of violation of the asserted IP.