Study On Section 337 Of The Tariff Act Of 1930

Section 337 roots in"Tariff Act of 1930"of the U.S.A, which is used to aim to regulate all unfair practices in trade importation. Then by revising many times, it gradually focuses on protection of Intellectual rights which involves relevant international trade activities. The provision authorizes the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to determine whether the foreign products should be excluded from the U.S. market because of their unlawful practices. Through the application of Section 337, the United States can exclude or limit the importation of articles infringing intellectual property right from the domestic market, and to effectively achieve the purpose of protecting domestic related industries. The dissertation aims to study on Section 337, and reveal the protective and trade remedy function of the domestic industry. Moreover, to illustrates some suggestions to improve Chinese trade remedy system with regard to Intellectual Property rights.The body includes four parts:Part one is an overview on Section 337. Section 337 stems from the Tariff Act and become to regulate unfair practices in import trade by revising, especially for intellectual property right infringement. Influenced by Intellectual property protection trend and U.S. trade policy, its function can be recognized as protection of domestic industry involves Intellectual right trade between the U.S.A and other countries, and there is a function transition from the tariff adjustment to trade protection of intellectual property trade. According to the analysis, the Section 337 regulates "unfair import trade practices." As the terms shows some distinct application standards between several types of intellectual property infringement(mainly about Patent Infringement, Common law or Registered Trade Mark infringement, Copyright Infringement and Mask works Infringement ) and the other unfair practices, and the standards of the later is more strict than the former. The general process of Section 337 investigation is low-cost and useful for Complainant.Part two refers to the comparison between Section 337 and other trade measures, such as Special 301 Report mechanism and the Federal District Court Proceedings.Part three introduces two relevant cases relating Section 337 under GATT /WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism. According to analyzing, some procedures of Section 337 cannot meet the obligation of the U.S.A under GATT /WTO. However, because of the complexity of Section 337, so far there is no definitely argument to prove the violation of Section 337 of the TRIPs. The legitimacy of Section 337 under GATT /WTO is still an open question.Finally, according to comparing the similar regulations of Chinese foreign trade law system with Section 337, there is some regulations need to be detailed to improve the trade remedy system of trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights. Chinese current trade remedies system for trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights are still imperfect. Based on the own legal traditions and relevant requirements of WTO, China should learn reasonable idea and regulation of Section 337 to further refine and strengthen law enforcement and judicial protection of intellectual property administrative coordination. Administration Protection of Intellectual property rights among international trade should be built in detail first, as well as to enhance cooperation between the administration protection and the judiciary, to further improve China's trade-related of intellectual property of trade remedy law.