The array of high-tech goods on the International Trade Commission’s docket in 2010 would make any gadget fan drool. Flat-screen TVs, GPS and video game systems, digital cameras, smartphones, and semiconductor chips could all be found at the increasingly popular patent infringement forum. The only thing hard to find, it seemed, was an empty courtroom.
“It used to be when you went to the ITC to file a paper or visit someone who works there, the courtrooms would both be dark for the most part. Now you don’t see that,” says Paul Brinkman, who heads Alston & Bird’s ITC practice. Things were so busy last year that some hearings were moved to the commission room, and the agency sought permission to hold others at the U.S. district court for the District of Columbia. “We’re coming upon a point where there’s just always a trial going on at the ITC.”
