Federal Circuit Upholds Commission's $11 million Penalty on Ninestar Technology Co., Ltd. for Violating Exclusion and Cease and Desist Orders
On February 8, 2012 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in the decision Ninestar Technology Co. v. International Trade Commission, affirmed the Commission's imposition of a penalty of over $11 million on Ninestar Technology Co., Ltd. (Ninestar) and two of its U.S. subsidiaries for their continued importation and sales of refurbished ink cartridges subject to exclusion and cease and desist orders. The case arose from an enforcement proceeding for the cease and desist orders issued in Investigation No. 337-TA-565, Certain Ink Cartridges and Components Thereof. The Federal Circuit rejected Ninestar’s argument that first sales outside the United States of the ink cartridges that were then refurbished by Ninestar gave rise to patent exhaustion that would allow their importation and sale in the United States. The Federal Circuit also rejected Ninestar’s constitutional arguments that the penalty was so large that it constituted a criminal penalty requiring a trial by jury in a federal district court and that the order was unclear for not identifying specific ink cartridges by model number.
