"Section 337" stipulates: If the U.S. International Trade Commission finds that the owner, importer or underwriter of the goods and their agents (1) use unfair competition methods when importing the goods into the United States or selling them in the United States and unfair conduct that threatens or has the effect of destroying or seriously injuring a U.S. domestic industry, or hindering the establishment of such industry, or restricting or monopolizing U.S. trade and commerce; or (2) importing goods into, or for the purpose of importing into, the United States and sold, or imported into the United States and then sold, and the goods infringe a valid and enforceable patent right, trademark right, copyright or semiconductor chip template right that has been registered in the United States, and the products related to these four rights already exist or in the process of establishing a domestic industry, these unfair competition methods will be considered illegal and should be dealt with by the United States.
The above regulations set up two sets of standards based on the nature of the unfair behavior: (1) If the unfair trade behavior infringes upon copyrights, patent rights, trademark rights, and semiconductor chip template rights protected by U.S. law, then appeal The party only needs to prove that the relevant industry exists or is establishing the industry in the United States, and the relevant unfair trade practices will be illegal, rather than the fact that they cause harm to the U.S. industry. When determining whether the industry exists in the United States, the criteria stipulated in Section 337 are: substantial investment in plant and equipment; substantial investment in labor or capital; or, substantial investment in industrial development, including engineering, research and development, or licensing .
(2) If the unfair trade behavior does not infringe on the above four rights, the complaining party must prove: ① Relevant industries exist in the United States or are in the process of being established; ② The impact of such unfair trade practices or tend to destroy or substantially impair domestic industry or hinder the establishment of industry, or to restrict or monopolize the trade and commerce of the United States.
Judging from the practice of "Section 337", the vast majority of cases involve intellectual property rights rather than general unfair trade practices. The main content of "Section 337" is: "If any import behavior contains unfair competition methods or unfair practices (mainly referring to infringement of intellectual property rights such as U.S. copyrights, patent rights, trademark rights, and utility model designs), it may cause harm to U.S. industries. Suppression, the ITC can conduct investigations at the request of U.S. domestic companies. "
The legislative purpose of Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act is to prevent U.S. industries from being harmed by unfair competition of imported products, especially in the United States. Intellectual property rights. (1) Statutory protection objects: copyrights, patents, registered trademarks, and mask works.
(2) The subjects of these unfair competition methods or unfair practices include owners, importers or underwriters, as well as agents of the above subjects.
(3) There are relevant US industries.
(4) There are unfair competition methods or unfair practices.
(5) Causes damage or threat of damage to related industries or trade in the United States. "Section 337" divides unfair trade in U.S. imports into two categories: general unfair trade and unfair trade related to intellectual property rights.
(1) Generally unfair trade practices refer to unfair competition methods and unfair behaviors during the importation of products into the United States by owners, importers or underwriters, or the sales process after importation. However, two conditions must be met to constitute illegality: first, the relevant industry exists in the United States or is in the process of being established; second, the damage has reached a certain level.
(2) Unfair trade related to intellectual property rights means that the owner, importer or underwriter imports to the United States, buys and sells for import, or imports and sells in the United States, which is an infringement of copyrights protected by U.S. law. Products with patent rights, trademark rights, and integrated circuit layout design rights. As long as an industry related to the industry exists or is being established in the United States, unfair trade practices related to intellectual property rights will be illegal, without causing damage to U.S. industries.
The U.S. Section 337 investigation refers to a measure taken by the United States against unfair competition in import trade, mainly intellectual property infringement. The U.S. “Section 337” investigation can be initiated by the manufacturer to the ITC, or it can be initiated by the ITC itself.
Once a company under Section 337 investigation is found to have infringed upon the applicant's valid intellectual property rights in the United States, the defendant company will face an expulsion order and a cease and desist order.