Law360 Quotes David Vondle on Remote Hearings at the ITC

Akin Gump intellectual property partner David Vondle has been quoted in the Law360 article “After 5-Month Standstill, ITC Gears Up For Remote Hearings.” The article reports on preparations by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to begin online hearings—the first since the coronavirus pandemic put most patent cases on hold earlier this year.

Evidentiary hearings in patent cases, according to Law360, have been at a standstill since March. Vondle said getting through all the hearings that were on hold for months, as well as those that were originally scheduled for this fall, could present some challenges. The cases, he said, are mostly done apart from the evidentiary hearing, yet there have been “five months going on six months of no hearings, which is very atypical for the ITC.”

Once the judges get through the backlog of hearings that need to take place, they will produce a larger-than-usual number of decisions that will need to be reviewed by the commission before they take effect, which could delay the final outcome in some cases, Vondle noted. He added that “the number-one issue will be accommodating the schedules of witnesses who are located outside the United States and trying to get a time that works for them.”

“Everybody’s fingers are crossed that the ITC is going to open up again, but at this point it’s hard to project when that’s actually going to be,” Vondle added. “It’s just like everything else — we’re all sort of stuck in this purgatory where we’re just waiting and seeing what’s going to happen.”