Milbank’s intellectual property litigation team, led by New York partners Chris Chalsen and Lawrence Kass, achieved an excellent result for Milbank client SI Group, Inc., in a trade secret misappropriation case at the International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington DC.  The claim alleged that Chinese companies Sino Legend and Red Avenue, along with certain of their affiliates and principals, stole SI Group’s technology for manufacturing certain rubber resins, including several tackifiers important for making tires.

The ITC had issued a notice on June 17, 2013, indicating that a confidential initial determination had issued in favor of SI Group.  The initial determination has now been released.  It is a highly detailed 716-page opinion with numerous holdings, including that the respondents had access to 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.  Based on these and other factors, the judge also issued a recommended determination on remedy advocating a 10 year “general exclusion order” banning imports of those resins.  

The investigation is now before the ITC Commissioners, who are considering whether to review the initial determination on the merits and whether to adopt the recommended determination on remedy.  If approved by the ITC Commissioners, the exclusion order will prohibit imports of the products at issue into the United States during the effective period of the ban.  The investigation is currently targeted to be complete by November 8.

The Milbank litigation team also included associates Nathaniel Browand, Jordan Markham, and Jacob Jou.