On Tuesday, the Federal Circuit decided, without opinion, not to take another look at the extraterritorial reach of Section 337 trade secret actions. As we reported in an earlier post, the ITC had issued an exclusion order against Chinese firm Sino Legend from importing tire resins based on misappropriated technology. Sino Legend appealed to the Federal Circuit, which summarily affirmed. Sino Legend then petitioned the Court to take the case up en banc, arguing principally that intervening Supreme Court precedent rendered the Federal Circuit’s 2011 decision in TianRui Grp. Co. v. Int’l Trade Comm’n, 661 F.3d 1322 (Fed. Cir. 2011) no longer good law. The Federal Circuit has now rejected that argument and effectively declared that the ITC still has jurisdiction to bar imports based on misappropriated trade secrets even if the acts of misappropriation occurred overseas.
