Faegre Drinker Team Secures ITC Victory for Baby Trend, Inc.

A Faegre Drinker intellectual property team including partners Trevor Carter and Drew McCoy, associates Doowon Chung, Reid Dodge, Josh DeAmicis, Bethany Mihalik, Matthew Spegele and Andrea Savageau, and senior paralegal Debbie Cairns has achieved a substantial victory for clients Baby Trend, Inc., Sichuan Hobbies Baby Products Co., Ltd., and Anhui Chile Baby Products Co., Ltd. in a patent infringement lawsuit before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC). 

In March 2023, the same team, before the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), invalidated one asserted patent on three separate bases and obtained a ruling that the patent was not infringed, resulting in a finding of no violation. On the other two asserted patents, the ALJ found all but three asserted claims to be invalid and that Baby Trend's current products do not infringe the only remaining valid claims.

On review by the full ITC, the final order also invalidated the three remaining claims. As a result, the ITC determined there was no violation of any asserted patent and terminated the investigation. A finding of no violation is a rare occurrence at the ITC – only around 10% of all investigations decided on the merits result in a finding of no violation.

This win at the ITC comes on the heels of another win by the same team in a related case in the Central District of California in February 2023, where the district court also found one of the asserted patents to be invalid and not infringed.