backThe U.S. International Trade Commission issued its final decision in the section 337 investigation on Certain Blood Flow Restriction Devices With Rotatable Windlasses, Inv. No. 337-TA-1364, in favor of King & Spalding’s domestic industry clients, Composite Resources (“CRI”) and North American Rescue (“NAR”), the sole U.S. producer and exclusive U.S. distributor, respectively, of combat application tourniquets.
The Commission found a violation of Section 337 based on respondents’ infringement of CRI’s patent and issued a general exclusion order (“GEO”) barring the importation of all infringing tourniquets regardless of whether they were imported by named respondents in the investigation. This GEO will be in effect until March 23, 2029, when the patent expires. This is a significant remedial order, as the Commission issues only 5-6 GEOs per year on average. The Commission also issued a limited exclusion order (“LEO”) against the defaulting respondents – a collection of 16 foreign manufacturers, exporters, and importers – based on infringement of CRI’s and NAR’s trademarks and trade dress. This LEO will be in effect in perpetuity. Finally, the Commission issued cease and desist orders against certain of the defaulting respondents, effectively preventing them from selling combat application tourniquets in the United States from stockpiled U.S. inventory, advertising, marketing, etc. This is in addition to the consent orders King & Spalding earlier secured against two U.S. distributors, SZY Inc. and ECI.
CRI and NAR stand to recover the portion of the U.S. tourniquet market that it previously forfeited to infringing Chinese knock offs and keep the supply chain free from inferior and dangerous counterfeit tourniquets.