Roku at the Supreme Court
Patent – Patently-O 2024-08-10
Summary:
Roku, Inc. has signaled its intent to seek Supreme Court review on the proper scope of the “domestic industry” requirement that serves as prerequisite for International Trade Commission (ITC) jurisdiction under 19 U.S.C. § 1337 (Section 337). The case stems from a Section 337 investigation brought by Universal Electronics, Inc. (UEI) against Roku for infringing UEI’s U.S. Patent No. 10,593,196 related to remote control technology for home entertainment systems.
In addition to proving importation of articles that infringe a U.S. patent, a complainant must establish that a domestic industry “relating to the articles protected by the patent . . . exists or is in the process of being established.” 19 U.S.C. § 1337(a)(2). This protectionist requirement reflects the ITC’s trade-focused mission of safeguarding domestic U.S. industries from unfair competition via importation. The Federal Circuit has divided the requirement into two “prongs”: technical and economic. The issues in this case focus on the economic prong set forth in subsections (a)(3)(A)-(C) and that relates to the complainant’s investments and activities with respect to the patent-practicing products. These require proof of a “substantial investment” in exploiting the patent through engineering, R&D, and/or licensing related to the protected articles.
The crux of the dispute is whether the ITC and Federal Circuit properly found that UEI satisfied the “economic prong” of the domestic industry requirement based on UEI’s investments related to its QuickSet software.