K&L Gates Scores Win for Qingdao Yunlu in ITC Trade Secret Case

China - A cross-border team of lawyers from global law firm K&L Gates has advised Qingdao Yunlu (Yunlu), one of the world’s largest producers of amorphous metal ribbon, in a Section 337 investigation before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) filed by an international metal production company and its subsidiary (complainants) alleging misappropriation of trade secrets (Inv. No. 337-TA-1078).

The complainants argued that Yunlu, among others, engaged in unfair competition by manufacturing, selling, and/or exporting into the U.S. certain amorphous metal products made with alleged misappropriated trade secrets owned by the complainants. Those claims included accusations that the Chinese government aided and abetted the Chinese amorphous metal manufacturing industry in a conspiracy to steal the complainants’ trade secrets.

By the close of fact discovery, the K&L Gates team was able to convince the complainants and the Office of Unfair Import Investigations that the complaint lacked merit, leading the complainants to voluntarily withdraw their complaint.

“This is a complete victory for our client, with this voluntary withdrawal being the first of its kind in a trade secret case involving Chinese respondents before the ITC,” said David Tang, K&L Gates’ Managing Partner, Asia. “Both Yunlu and the China Ministry of Commerce, as a cross-border trading regulator, have applauded the efforts, strategy, and experience we brought to bear in this case.”

The K&L Gates team that helped Yunlu obtain the outcome was led by San Francisco partner and intellectual property trial lawyer Harold Davis, with the assistance of partners Jeffrey Johnson in Seattle, Jay Chiu in Hong Kong, and Henry Wang in Beijing, among others.

K&L Gates has an extensive ITC litigation practice available to effectively service the needs of clients based in Asia and various other regions of the world. This is the third case in the past 18 months in which the firm’s ITC litigation team was able to convince complainants to voluntarily withdraw their complaints prior to trial.