The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has denied respondents’ requests for entry into the ITC’s pilot program for early case disposition in a trio of recent orders: in Certain Insulated Beverage Containers, Components, Labels, and Packaging Materials Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-1084 (Nov. 17, 2017); and in the companion cases of Certain Color Intraoral Scanners and Related Hardware and Software, Inv. No. 337-TA-1090 and 337-TA-1091 (Dec. 14, 2017).  In Beverage Containers, the issue on which respondents requested early disposition was whether the ITC has jurisdiction over respondent internet marketers; in the Color Intraoral Scanners cases, the issue was whether complainant could satisfy Section 337’s domestic industry requirement.  In the former case, the Commission opined that “[g]iven the existence of other respondents, the issues raised are not likely to be dispositive of the entire investigation.”  In the latter cases, the Commission reasoned that “the issues may be too complex to be decided within 100 days of institution.”

 These denials follow on the heels of the Commission’s October 2017 refusal to designate Certain Shaving Cartridges, Components Thereof and Products Containing Same, Inv. No. 337-TA-1079 (Oct. 25, 2017) for entry into the pilot program (see our prior post, here).  As we noted in that post, since the program’s 2013 inception, the ITC has designated only a handful of cases for early disposition.