On May 24, 2011, the “International Seminar on Section 337 Investigations” was held in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, with the Department of Commerce of Jiangsu Province serving as the sponsor, and Jun He Law Offices and United States International Trade Commission (USITC) as co-organizers.

 

JK Sucralose Inc. was invited to participate in the Seminar as the only Chinese enterprise that took the initiative to participate in the Section 337 Investigations conducted by USITC and was recognized as an enterprise without infringement. AN Lijun, General Manager of JK Sucralose, attended the Seminar and had heated discussions with American lawyers and other enterprise representatives about the problems confronted by Chinese enterprises when dealing with Section 337 Investigations. In addition, he also discussed with USITC’s lawyers about how Chinese enterprises took the initiative to control the process of the Section 337 Investigations.

 

Ding Yusheng, director of the Bureau of Fair Trade under the Department of Commerce of Jiangsu Province, and Luo Jin, section chief of the Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports under the Ministry of Commerce, delivered a speech at the Seminar respectively. They introduced status quo confronted by Chinese enterprises to deal with Section 337 Investigations and expressed their hopes to, through the Seminar, enhance Chinese enterprises’ understanding of ITC-337 Investigation, raise their awareness and ability of dealing with ITC-337 Investigation and safeguard their legal rights and interests in accordance with law. Later on, Irving A. Williamson, vice president of USITC and lawyers specialized in intellectual property right of Association for Trial Lawyers of America respectively introduced the process, causes of lawsuit and remedy measures of Section 337 Investigations.

 

Background of the Seminar:

 

 “337 Section Investigations” are measures adopted by the U.S. targeted at unfair acts (mainly refer to infringement of intelligent property right) in the import trade. Once an infringement of intellectual property rights is recognized, a General Exclusion Order will be issued to stop infringing imports from entering the United States. Due to China’s increasing trades with the United States, Chinese enterprises become the target being guarded against by foreign countries, with a surging number of Chinese enterprises involved in the investigations cases conducted by the United States.

 

To carry out in-depth Sino-U.S. economic and trade cooperation, enhance exchanges in the field of intellectual property right and improve Chinese enterprises’ ability to guard against and deal with risks in the international operation, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and USITC have organized a series of exchange activities centering on Section 337 Investigations since 2009, in a bid to help Chinese enterprises acquire an in-depth understanding of intellectual property rights involved in the United States, especially the understanding of and countermeasures for Section 337 Investigations, and assist Chinese enterprises in their efforts to guard against and solve the risks of intellectual property right when developing American market. JK Sucralose was invited to participate in the “International Seminar on Section 337 Investigations” for three consecutive years as the only model of Chinese enterprises that took the initiative to response to the lawsuit in the Section 337 Investigations and obtained a non-infringement judgment.