A U.S. International Trade Commission administrative law judge issued an initial determination to terminate a trade secret investigation brought by Zync Inc. against Finnegan client BMW, concluding that a forum-selection clause in the parties’ non-disclosure agreement requires disputes to be litigated in Munich, Germany.
Finnegan partner and lead counsel for BMW Lionel Lavenue told Bloomberg Law that this was the “first known instance” of an ITC judge ending an “investigation based on a forum-selection clause.”
He said lawyers drawing up partnership agreements would need to treat such clauses “with greater seriousness, knowing they can now be enforced to terminate 337 proceedings,” referring to the statute that gives the ITC the authority to adjudicate IP disputes.
Read “BMW Secures Novel Escape from Trade Secret Investigation”
