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August 23, 2013

SI Group Wins Initial Determination from ITC Against Chinese Intellectual Property Thieves

By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor

SI Group, Inc. would appear to be coming out on the winning side of a recent intellectual property lawsuit against Chinese companies Sino Legend and Red Avenue, which it had accused of stealing SI Group’s technology for manufacturing certain rubber resins, including several tackifiers important for making tires.



While the final determination has yet to be made, law firm Milbank’s intellectual property litigation team presented the trade secret misappropriation case at the International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, D.C. The claim alleged that Chinese companies Sino Legend and Red Avenue, along with certain affiliates and principals, infringed on SI’s intellectual property. In response to the case, the ITC issued a notice in June indicating that a confidential initial determination had been found in favor of SI Group. That initial determination has now been formally released, Milbank said in a statement.

The Chinese companies were found to have accessed and misappropriated SI Group trade secrets to develop four of their own competing resins, actively tried to conceal their activities, and were likely to circumvent a limited exclusion order through their convoluted corporate structure, said the ITC in the 700-plus page initial finding.

The next step is for ITC Commissioners to consider whether to review the initial determination on the merits and whether to adopt the recommended determination on remedy. If the initial determination is adopted, it will put in place an exclusion order that will prohibit imports of the Sino Legend, Red Avenue and affiliated products at issue into the U.S. for a period of 10 years. The current investigation is currently targeted to be complete by Nov. 8 of this year.

For more information about intellectual property patent issues, visit TMC’s (News - Alert) new show SUITS (Synopsis Under IP/Patents Telecom Sourcing), collocated with ITEXPO at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas next week (Aug. 26-29). For more information or to register, visit TMCnet here.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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