United States: Commissioner Kieff To Leave ITC

ITC Commissioner F. Scott Kieff has announced that he is leaving the ITC to return to his previous academic position as a professor at the George Washington University Law School. Kieff's last day at the ITC will be June 30, 2017.

Nominated by President Obama, Commissioner Kieff, a Republican, was sworn in on October 18, 2013, for the term expiring on June 16, 2020. Before his tenure at the ITC, Commissioner Kieff took a leave of absence from his post as a Professor at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC, which he joined in the summer of 2009. He came to George Washington University from Washington University in Saint Louis, where he was a Professor in the School of Law with a secondary appointment in the School of Medicine's Department of Neurological Surgery. He was named Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor at the George Washington University Law School in the fall of 2012. Kieff was also the Ray & Louise Knowles Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, where he served as Director and a Member of the Research Team of the Hoover Project on Commercializing Innovation.

Kieff's relatively short term in the ITC was highlighted by his strong views on intellectual property rights and ITC remedies including his dissenting position that the ITC should not require proof of domestic inventory to issue cease and desist orders—a position shared by Chairman Schmidtlein. Commissioner Kieff also held the view that the ITC should hold more live hearings on its review of ALJ initial determinations in Section 337 investigations.

Kieff's early departure marks the second ITC Commissioner seat vacated this year with Dean Pinkert stepping down on February 28. With only four out of six Commissioners, a historically high caseload, and no nominations as of yet by the President, the departures may impact the schedules for completing investigations.

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