CAFC Stays CIT's Order Telling ITC to Fix Public Record in Injury Case
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 11 stayed the Court of International Trade's directives in two cases concerning the International Trade Commission's redaction of certain business proprietary information. In addition, the appellate court designated the lawsuits as "companion cases" to be heard by the same merits panel and appointed Alex Moss, executive director at the Public Interest Patent Law Institute, to be amicus counsel to defend the trade court's rulings (In Re United States, Fed. Cir. #s 24-1566, 25-127).
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In both cases before the Federal Circuit, CIT Judge Stephen Vaden took issue with the ITC's redaction policy in some form. In one, CVB v. U.S., Vaden decided not to redact information deemed confidential by the ITC in his merits ruling in an injury case (see 2401090046). In the other, OCP v. U.S., Vaden declared unlawful the ITC's "practice of automatically redacting questionnaire responses" (see 2503270057).
The ITC appealed the first decision and filed for mandamus relief from the second. In the OCP proceeding, Vaden remanded the case on the merits then issued his decision on the remand results under seal, which again remanded the injury proceeding. Vaden also said that, "unless directed otherwise by the Federal Circuit," the ITC must correct the public version of the record to "reveal the wrongfully redacted information" the judge said appeared as a result of the commission's unlawful redaction policy.
Before the Federal Circuit, the ITC said that with the merits decision under seal, it's unclear if it can proceed with the remand proceedings, since the commission can't refer to the decision's contents during remand and the parties won't know the reason for the remand. As a result, the commission asked the appellate court to tell CIT to issue a public version of the merits decision that includes any redactions proposed by the ITC and vacate or stay the trade court's orders "until this Court issues a decision" on the ITC's redaction policy.
In a per curiam order, the Federal Circuit said it construed the ITC's request as a bid for an "interim stay." The court granted that request, staying "the CIT’s directives requiring the government to correct the public version of the record and to change its practices of designating BPI in the OCP Case remand proceedings."
The court said the relief it offers stops there, since the ITC "has not otherwise shown entitlement to relief," particularly in light of Vaden filing the merits decision under seal.
The court also appointed Moss to serve as amicus in support of Vaden's decision. Moss joins patent attorney Andrew Dhuey as court-appointed amici in the case, both of whom have been appointed to back the trade court's rulings.