Ninestar Appeals $11 Million Penalty for Section 337 Patent Violations to Supreme Court

Ninestar Technology filed a petition for Supreme Court hearing on whether it must pay more than $11 million in penalties for violating an exclusion order and cease and desist orders issued in an International Trade Commission patent investigation of ink cartridge imports. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the penalties in February. Ninestar had argued that sale in any country satisfies the “first sale rule,” so its sale of the ink cartridges in China exhaust any U.S. patent claims in a Section 337 proceeding. The company also argued that administrative bodies, such as the ITC, cannot issue punitive penalties for violation of an administrative order. Such a large penalty could only be ordered by an Article III court after a fair trial, it said.