Opinion ID: 4511902
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: e., be sold, “after importation.” Section

Text: 337(a)(1)(B)’s “sale . . . after importation” language confirms that the Commission is permitted to focus on post-importation activity to identify the completion of infringement. Id. at 1349 (alteration and emphasis in original) (citations omitted). The court held that “the Commission’s interpretation that the phrase ‘articles that infringe’ covers goods that were used by an importer to directly infringe post-importation as a result of the seller’s inducement is reasonable.” Id. at 1352–53. Comcast argues that Suprema should be limited to its facts, whereby the inducement liability must be attached to the imported article at the time of the article’s importation. Comcast states that the imported X1 set-top boxes are incapable of infringement until the X1 set-top boxes are combined with Comcast’s domestic servers and its customers’ mobile devices. Comcast contends that any inducing conduct of articles that infringe occurs entirely after the boxes’ importation. The Commission correctly held that Section 337 applies to articles that infringe after importation. See Suprema, supra. The Commission found: Moreover, even if the location of Comcast’s inducing conduct were legally relevant, and it is not, Comcast designed the X1 STBs to be used in an in- Case: 18-1450 Document: 148 Page: 12 Filed: 03/02/2020 12 COMCAST CORP. v. U.S. INT’L TRADE COMM’N fringing manner, and directed their manufacture overseas—requiring, among other things, overseas installation of the relevant software onto the STBs. Final ID at 9–12, 232, 234; Wing Shing Pdts. (BVI), Ltd. v. Simatelex Manufactory Co., 479 F.Supp.2d 388, 409–11 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) (“[N]umerous courts have held that, in contrast to §§ 271 (a) and (c), § 271 (b) applies to extraterritorial conduct.”); see also, e.g., Honeywell, Inc. v. Metz Apparatewerke, 509 F.2d 1137, 1141–42 (7th Cir. 1975); MEMC Elec. Materials, Inc. v. Mitsubishi Materials Silicon Corp., 2006 WL 463525, at  (N.D. Cal. 2006). Comcast then directed the importation of those STBs to Comcast facilities in the United States. Final ID at 9–12. Comcast’s inducing activity took place overseas, prior to importation; it took place at importation; and it took place in the United States, after importation. See, e.g., id. at 9–12, 232–37, 399. J.A. 85 n.13. It is undisputed that direct infringement of the ’263 and ’413 patents occurs when the imported X1 settop boxes are fitted by or on behalf of Comcast and used with Comcast’s customers’ mobile devices. Reversible error has not been shown in the Commission’s determinations that the X1 set-top boxes imported by and for Comcast for use by Comcast’s customers are “articles that infringe” in terms of Section 337.