Covington Secures ITC Victory in Patent Infringement Litigation

WASHINGTON, DC, July 16, 2014 — Covington & Burling secured a victory on July 7, 2014 when an administrative law judge of the U.S. International Trade Commission determined that Samsung, LG and Toshiba did not violate Section 337 of the Tariff Act, a U.S. trade law frequently used by patent owners to target imports.

Black Hills Media LLC, based in Delaware, filed a complaint with the ITC in May 2013 alleging that Samsung and four other companies infringed patents relating to media and location sharing technologies. The accused products included televisions, Blu-ray disc players, home theater systems, tablets and mobile phones.

Following a week-long evidentiary hearing, Judge David P. Shaw issued an extensive initial determination holding that Samsung’s accused products did not infringe any of the asserted claims, that most of the asserted claims are invalid, and that Black Hills had not met its burden of proving that a domestic industry exists for any of its asserted patents. On July 7, in a notice of his final initial determination, Judge Shaw held that “a violation of section 337 has not been found.” The ITC is expected to decide in September 2014 whether to review any portion of Judge Shaw’s decision.

The California and D.C.-based Covington team, which represented Samsung, included Robert Haslam, Michael Plimack, Nitin Subhedar, Jo Dale Carothers, Sturgis Sobin, Maureen Browne, Alexander Chinoy, and Dale Rice.