Since February 2015, when the U.S. International Trade Commission announced its pilot program for expedited rulings on whether ITC exclusion and cease-and-desist orders cover redesigns or new products, the commission has issued four decisions under the program. Two of the requests for advisory opinions were initially referred to the Office of Unfair Import Investigations (OUII) for consideration, while the other two proceedings were initially handled by the Office of the General Counsel. In each case, the procedure appears to have resulted in expedited decisions, at least in comparison with the ITC’s previous practice of handling advisory requests. The speed with which advisory and modification proceedings have progressed under the pilot program may encourage parties to make greater use of it in the future.

OUII-Conducted Proceedings -

In two instances where advisory requests were filed since or just before the announcement of the pilot program, they were referred to the OUII with the direction to issue a written report within 90 days of publication of the notice in the Federal Register.

Originally published in Law360 on February 21, 2017.