ITC Affirms Amsted’s Victory Against U.S. And Chinese Cast Steel Railway Wheel Competitors
12.18.09
McAndrews, Held & Malloy announced today another victory for its client, Chicago-based Amsted Industries Incorporated, before the International Trade Commission (ITC), Investigation No. 337-TA-655.
On Dec. 17, 2009, the ITC determined not to review Administrative Law Judge Carl C. Charneski’s Oct. 16, 2009 determination that four Respondents, two Chinese companies (Tianrui Group Company Limited and Tianrui Group Foundry Company Limited) and two U.S. companies (Standard Car Truck Company, Inc., which Wilmerding, Pa.-based Wabtec Corporation [NYSE-WAB] acquired in 2008, and Barber Tianrui Railway Supply, LLC), have violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Specifically, those Respondents have violated Section 337 by misappropriating 128 Amsted trade secrets relating to the manufacture of cast steel railway wheels, importing into the United States cast steel railway wheels and substantially injuring, and threatening substantial injury to, Amsted’s domestic cast steel railway wheel operations, which manufacture Amsted’s Griffin® wheels.
The ITC is expected to determine and issue a remedy for the Respondents’ extensive trade secret misappropriation and illegal importation in February 2010. Previously, on Oct. 29, 2009, Judge Charneski issued his recommended remedy against the Respondents. Judge Charneski recommended a 10-year Limited Exclusion Order “that covers all of respondents’ cast steel railway wheels and products containing the same that are the result of respondents’ misappropriation.” Judge Charneski also recommended Cease and Desist Orders “directed toward each respondent that will prohibit them from selling, advertising, promoting, shipping, distributing, or otherwise transferring within the United States, any Tianrui wheels manufactured abroad using the ABC Process.”
“The Respondents unfairly and illegally attempted to enter the U.S. railway wheel market and were caught,” said Greg Vogler, a McAndrews shareholder and Amsted’s lead counsel on the case. “The Respondents’ misappropriation and misconduct have been so extensive, to perhaps an unprecedented degree, that at least a 10-year exclusion order and 10-year cease and desist orders should be issued against them, and Amsted also should be awarded other relief, including attorneys’ fees.”
McAndrews shareholder Dean Pelletier added, “We believe that the ITC’s decision recognizes that Judge Charneski properly considered the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses during the two-week trial. As that evidence showed, the Respondents blatantly attempted to force Amsted to compete against its own intellectual property, and the ITC properly has thwarted that attempt.”
Amsted is represented by McAndrews attorneys Greg Vogler, Dean A. Pelletier, Wil Rao and Yufeng (Ethan) Ma and by Bryan Cave LLP attorneys Lyle Vander Schaaf and Jay H. Reiziss.