Through Sept. 1, 43 Section 337 complaints had been filed in the International Trade Commission this year. That works out to an annualized pace of 64, which would make 2016 the second-busiest year in the history of the commission—surpassed only by the “Smartphone Wars” peak of 2011.
ITC complaints are up dramatically relative to the first three quarters of 2015, reversing the downtrend identified in a previous article on this site. (See “Making Sense of Section 337 Litigation Statistics at the ITC” [CorpCounsel.com, May 31, 2016].) Complaint filings have exceeded their 10-year average nine of the last 11 months (the only exceptions being January, when Washington, D.C., was hit by a 2-foot snowstorm, and a mid-summer lull in July).
