ITC Judge Theodore Essex Has Retired, Agency Confirms
By Kelcee Griffis
Law360, New York (August 22, 2017, 3:41 PM EDT) -- A U.S. International Trade Commission administrative law judge who oversaw a variety of technology and intellectual property-related investigations has left the enforcement agency after about a decade on its bench, the ITC said Tuesday.
Administrative Law Judge Theodore R. Essex retired as of Aug. 11, an ITC spokesperson confirmed to Law360. The commission did not release a formal statement on his retirement, but the spokesperson said his cases have been assigned to Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock until a new judge arrives.
Judge Essex had served as an administrative law judge with ITC since 2007, according to his biography, and he often oversaw Section 337 unfair trade practices investigations, particularly dealing with patent and trademark law.
During his tenure, he presided over cases involving patents covering such products as disposable coffee cups and smartphone technology and involving big names such as Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
In April, Judge Essex recommended that an order barring Eko Brands LLC from importing or selling certain reusable single-serving coffee pods be rescinded after a federal judge found that the pods didn’t infringe a California inventor’s patent.
That dispute dated to late 2014, when inventor Adrian Rivera’s company, ARM Enterprises Inc., asked the ITC to block imports by several companies that allegedly sold versions of coffee brewing cups described in his patent.
In April 2015, Judge Essex cleared General Motors LLC supplier TRW Automotive US LLC of allegations that it had flouted international trade law by importing certain driver assistance cameras. Competing supplier Magna Electronics Inc. originally lobbed the accusation that TRW’s products infringed its patents. However, Judge Essex said the cameras, used to provide safety functions like lane departure warnings, did not directly infringe. The ITC upheld that determination upon review.
Judge Essex was also involved in a variety of smartphone and telecom technology patent disputes, deciding in 2015 that Microsoft Corp. infringed two InterDigital[color=red][color=red][/color][/color] patents covering wireless technology with Nokia Corp. patents that Microsoft now owns. And in 2014, the ITC let stand Judge Essex’s initial determination that certain Samsung 3G and 4G wireless products did not infringe two InterDigital Inc. wireless technology patents.
Blaney Harper, a partner with Jones Day specializing in patent enforcement, said he's sorry to see Judge Essex leave the ITC.
"He worked very hard, brought independent thought to the matters he worked on and was very practical," Harper said. "I thought he made the ITC bar better because of his high standards for civility."
Judge Essex previously served as an administrative law judge for the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals and held various legal advisory and leadership roles with the U.S. Air Force, including a post as chief of aviation law with the Air Education and Training Command, according to his biography. He earned his law degree from Ohio State University and his undergraduate degree from Miami University in Ohio.
--Additional reporting by Matthew Bultman and Jeff Sistrunk. Editing by Sara Ziegler.
