What is an ITC action?

An ITC Action is a proceeding which takes place before the federal International Trade Commission. In this proceeding, the owner of a patent is seeking to prevent someone else’s product from being imported into the United States. This is because that product was made by a process which is protected by the patent owner’s patent, and the person trying to import the product is attempting to avoid patent infringement by using the patented process outside of the United States. For example, if you own the patent on how to put a widget together, but you do not own a patent for the actual widget itself, I might try to get around your patent by having the widgets put together in China and then imported into the country - if I did this, you could initiate an ITC action to have the ITC prevent me from bringing my widgets into the U.S.