Title: Trade Protection Not Troll Protection Act
Policy area: Foreign Trade and International Finance

Summary:
Trade Protection Not Troll Protection Act
This bill amends the Tariff Act of 1930, with respect to unfair practices in the import trade, to consider an industry in the United States to exist if there is in the United States substantial investment in licensing activities that leads to the adoption and development of articles that incorporate the patent, copyright, trademark, mask work, or design.
If the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), at the beginning of an investigation of an alleged unfair practice, identifies a domestic industry as the dispositive issue in question, it shall direct the assigned administrative law judge (ALJ) to:
Any initial determination by the assigned ALJ shall stay the investigation pending ITC action.
The ITC may determine during an investigation that exclusion of the articles concerned from entry into the United States would not be in the public interest, and terminate the investigation, in whole or in part, without any further determination, after considering the nature of the articles concerned and the effect of exclusion upon:
Any person adversely affected by an ITC ruling that identifies a domestic industry as the dispositive issue in question may appeal that ruling, within 60 days after all administrative remedies are exhausted, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
ITC discretion not to exclude any articles concerned, even though an importer has violated the ban on unfair competition, is repealed. If the ITC also determines that exclusion would be in the public interest, it shall direct exclusion of the articles.
During an investigation, if the ITC determines there is reason to believe that an unfair import practice has occurred, and exclusion of the articles concerned would be in the public interest, the ITC may direct the exclusion the articles concerned, after considering the factors mentioned above. (Currently the ITC may not direct an exclusion until an investigation concludes and it determines, as a result of the investigation, that an unfair import trade practice has occurred.)

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2189 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2189

    To amend section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 with respect to 
     requirements for domestic industries, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 27, 2017

Mr. Cardenas (for himself, Mr. Farenthold, Mr. Swalwell of California, 
and Mr. Issa) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 with respect to 
     requirements for domestic industries, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Trade Protection Not Troll 
Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to ensure that the resources of the 
United States International Trade Commission are focused on protecting 
genuine domestic industries, to restore confidence with the trading 
partners of the United States that the Commission will not be a 
duplicative forum for enforcing intellectual property rights when 
United States district courts are already available, and to safeguard 
the public health and welfare and the United States economy (including 
competitive conditions).

SEC. 3. UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE.

    (a) In General.--Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 
1337) is amended as follows:
            (1) Subsection (a) is amended--
                    (A) in paragraph (3)--
                            (i) by striking ``or'' at the end of 
                        subparagraph (B);
                            (ii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 
                        ``engineering, research and development, or 
                        licensing.'' and inserting ``engineering and 
                        research and development; or''; and
                            (iii) by adding after subparagraph (C) the 
                        following:
            ``(D) substantial investment in licensing activities that 
        leads to the adoption and development of articles that 
        incorporate the patent, copyright, trademark, mask work, or 
        design.'';
                    (B) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph 
                (5); and
                    (C) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
    ``(4) For purposes of paragraph (3), the complainant may not rely 
upon activities by its licensees unless the license leads to the 
adoption and development of articles that incorporate the claimed 
patent, copyright, trademark, mask work, or design for sale in the 
United States.''.
            (2) Subsection (b) is amended--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by inserting after the first 
                sentence the following: ``For a complaint under oath, a 
                person may be relied upon to qualify as an industry 
                under subsection (a)(2) only if the person joins the 
                complaint under oath, except that nothing in this 
                sentence shall be construed to compel such a person to 
                join the complaint.''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(4)(A) The Commission shall identify, at the beginning of an 
investigation, whether the investigation presents a dispositive issue 
appropriate for an expedited fact finding and an abbreviated hearing 
limited to that issue, and shall direct the assigned administrative law 
judge to rule on such issue early in the investigation. The Commission, 
in its notice of instituting the investigation, shall set out specific 
timeframes for such expedited fact finding and hearing.
    ``(B) If the Commission identifies a domestic industry as the 
dispositive issue in question, the Commission shall direct the assigned 
administrative law judge to expedite fact finding in the investigation 
on the domestic industry requirement, including an early evidentiary 
hearing, and to issue an initial determination on this matter within 
100 days after the investigation is instituted.
    ``(C) Any initial determination by the assigned administrative law 
judge under subparagraph (A) or (B) shall stay the investigation 
pending Commission action.''.
            (3) Subsection (c) is amended--
                    (A) by striking the first sentence and inserting 
                the following: ``(1) The Commission shall determine, 
                with respect to each investigation conducted by it 
                under this section, whether or not there is a violation 
                of this section, except that the Commission--
            ``(A) may, by issuing a consent order or on the basis of an 
        agreement between the private parties to the investigation, 
        including an agreement to present the matter for arbitration, 
        terminate any such investigation, in whole or in part, without 
        making such a determination; or
            ``(B) may determine during the course of the investigation 
        that the exclusion of the articles under investigation would 
        not be in the interest of the public, after considering the 
        nature of the articles concerned and the effect of such 
        exclusion upon the public health and welfare, the United States 
        economy (including competitive conditions), the production of 
        like or directly competitive articles by the complainant and 
        its licensees, United States consumers, and any other relevant 
        considerations, and terminate any such investigation, in whole 
        or in part, without making any further determination.'';
                    (B) in the second sentence, by striking ``Each 
                determination'' and inserting the following:
    ``(2) Each determination'';
                    (C) by inserting after ``the Federal Circuit for 
                review in accordance with chapter 7 of title 5, United 
                States Code.'' the following: ``In addition, any person 
                adversely affected by a ruling of the Commission under 
                subsection (b)(4) may appeal such ruling, within 60 
                days after all administrative remedies are exhausted, 
                to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal 
                Circuit for review in accordance with chapter 7 of 
                title 5, United States Code. In the event that the 
                Commission's ruling is appealed under this subsection 
                and upon motion by the adversely affected party, the 
                Commission shall stay all further proceedings in the 
                investigation until all appeals are final.'';
                    (D) by striking ``its findings on the public health 
                and welfare, competitive conditions in the United 
                States economy,'' and inserting ``its findings on the 
                public health and welfare, the United States economy 
                (including competitive conditions),''; and
                    (E) by inserting ``by the complainant and its 
                licensees'' after ``the production of like or directly 
                competitive articles''.
            (4) Subsection (d)(1) is amended by striking the first 
        sentence and inserting the following: ``If the Commission 
        determines, as a result of an investigation under this section, 
        that there is a violation of this section and that exclusion of 
        the articles concerned would be in the interest of the public, 
        after considering the nature of the articles concerned and the 
        effect of such exclusion upon the public health and welfare, 
        the United States economy (including competitive conditions), 
        the production of like or directly competitive articles by the 
        complainant and its licensees, United States consumers, and any 
        other relevant considerations, the Commission shall direct that 
        the articles concerned that are imported by any person 
        violating the provision of this section be excluded from entry 
        into the United States.''.
            (5) Subsection (e)(1) is amended by striking the first 
        sentence and inserting the following: ``If, during the course 
        of an investigation under this section, the Commission 
        determines that there is reason to believe that there is a 
        violation of this section and that exclusion of the articles 
        concerned would be in the interest of the public, the 
        Commission may direct that the articles concerned that are 
        imported by any person with respect to whom there is reason to 
        believe that such person is violating this section be excluded 
        from entry into the United States, after considering the nature 
        of the articles concerned and the effect of such exclusion upon 
        the public health and welfare, the United States economy 
        (including competitive conditions), the production of like or 
        directly competitive articles by the complainant and its 
        licensees, United States consumers, and any other relevant 
        considerations.''.
            (6) Subsection (f)(1) is amended by striking the first 
        sentence and inserting the following: ``In addition to, or in 
        lieu of, taking action under subsection (d) or (e), the 
        Commission may issue and cause to be served on any person 
        violating this section, or believed to be violating this 
        section, as the case may be, an order directing such person to 
        cease and desist from engaging in the unfair methods or acts 
        involved, after considering the nature of the articles 
        concerned and the effect of such exclusion upon the public 
        health and welfare, the United States economy (including 
        competitive conditions), the production of like or directly 
        competitive articles by the complainant and its licensee, 
        United States consumers, and any other relevant 
        considerations.''.
            (7) Subsection (g)(1) is amended by amending the matter 
        following subparagraph (E) to read as follows:
``the Commission shall presume the facts alleged in the complaint to be 
true and shall, upon request, issue an exclusion from entry or a cease 
and desist order, or both, limited to that person, after considering 
the nature of the articles concerned and the effect of such exclusion 
upon the public health and welfare, the United States economy 
(including competitive conditions), the production of like or directly 
competitive articles by the complainant and its licensees, United 
States consumers, and any other relevant considerations.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to complaints filed under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 
on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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