The U.S. International Trade Commission’s claim to fame is its unique ability to ban the importation of products that infringe U.S. patents. So an appeals court caused something of a stir in patent circles last year when it restricted the ITC’s power to issue import bans in certain cases.
Now lawyers at Latham & Watkins and the ITC have won a chance to reverse that ruling. In a one-page order issued on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed to an en banc rehearing in a case brought by Latham’s client, the U.S. biometrics company Cross Match Technologies Inc. The order gives Cross Match a second shot at convincing the court that it’s entitled to a wide-ranging ITC import ban on fingerprint scanners made by Suprema Inc., a Korean rival.
