Nothing about this implicates the rule of law

Reader comment on: McConnell and Toyota

Submitted by Ted Frank (United States), Jul 19, 2010 11:36

Overruling an ITC decision to bar importation of a product over a patent dispute does not "take away" any intellectual property rights; a legitimate patent holder can still obtain damages for infringement in an Article III court. It's just a question of whether importation will be enjoined (and thus force a settlement sooner than might otherwise occur--which is good if there are legitimate patent rights at issue, and not so good if, as is not infrequently the case, the ITC gets the answer wrong).

It's not "selective enforcement," either: the statute in question explicitly gives executive-branch authority to overrule an administrative judge's decision in this area.

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