ITC Judge Rules TP-Link Violated U.S. Trade Laws By Infringing Netgear Patents

(RTTNews) - Netgear, Inc. (NTGR), Monday announced that Administrative Law Judge Doris Johnson Hines of the U.S. International Trade Commission issued an Initial Determination finding that China-based TP-Link violated federal law by importing and selling in the United States its multi-band Wi-Fi devices, routers and mesh networking devices.

The ALJ's Initial Determination comes in response to a complaint filed with the ITC by Netgear in April 2023, alleging that TP-Link's products infringe certain of Netgear's patents.

The ITC instituted an investigation into Netgear's allegations and assigned the investigation to an ALJ on May 8, 2023. In concluding that TP-Link violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the ALJ determined that TP-Link's products infringe all the asserted claims of NETGEAR's U.S. Patent Nos. 7,936,714 and 10,681,698.

"NETGEAR is delighted by the ALJ's Initial Determination upholding NETGEAR's intellectual property and we thank Judge Hines for her hard work and insights," said Andrew Kim, NETGEAR's Chief Legal Officer. "We remain committed to vigorously protecting NETGEAR's intellectual property and look forward to the Final Determination by the full Commission, who we hope will see the issues in the same light, affirm the Initial Determination, and remedy TP-Link's continuing and very damaging business practices, which rely heavily on infringing NETGEAR's patents."