The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has historically been a popular, albeit niche, forum for litigating intellectual property disputes and trade violations. The 'smartphone wars' (circa 2010-2013), which saw a dramatic increase in the number of complaints filed and threatened to exclude many smartphones from the U.S. market, certainly raised the ITC's profile to a broader audience. The number of Section 337 complaints filed in the ITC had been steadily rising from around 17 complaints in 2000 to around 40 complaints in 2008. But in 2010, the number of new complaints jumped to 56 and then skyrocketed in 2011 to a record 72.
Many of the complaints in those record years involved battling smartphone companies. Perhaps not coincidentally, as the smartphone wars cooled, the ITC's docket also shrank and in 2013, 2014, and 2015, the filing rate headed back to 2008 levels. In this article, Finnegan attorneys Elizabeth A. Niemeyer and Smith R. Brittingham discuss the long-term effects of the ITC smartphone wars.
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