Summary of Commission Practice Relating to Administrative Protective Orders, 54071-54076 [E9-25243]

Agencies

• INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 202 (Wednesday, October 21, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54071-54076]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-25243]


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INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION


Summary of Commission Practice Relating to Administrative 
Protective Orders

AGENCY: U.S. International Trade Commission.

ACTION: Summary of Commission practice relating to administrative 
protective orders.

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SUMMARY: Since February 1991, the U.S. International Trade Commission 
(``Commission'') has issued an annual report on the status of its 
practice with respect to violations of its administrative protective 
orders (``APOs'') in investigations under Title VII of the Tariff Act 
of 1930 in response to a direction contained in the Conference Report 
to the Customs and Trade Act of 1990. Over time, the Commission has 
added to its report discussions of APO breaches in Commission 
proceedings other than under Title VII and violations of the 
Commission's rules including the rule on bracketing business 
proprietary information (``BPI'') (the ``24-hour rule''), 19 CFR 
207.3(c). This notice provides a summary of investigations completed 
during calendar year 2008 of breaches in proceedings under Title VII, 
section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and section 421 of the Trade Act 
of 1974. In addition, there is a summary of rules violation 
investigations completed in 2008. The Commission intends that this 
report inform representatives of parties to Commission proceedings as 
to some specific types of APO breaches and rules violations encountered 
by the Commission and the corresponding types of actions the Commission 
has taken.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carol McCue Verratti, Esq., Office of 
the General Counsel, U.S. International Trade Commission, telephone 
(202) 205-3088. Hearing impaired individuals

[[Page 54072]]

are advised that information on this matter can be obtained by 
contacting the Commission's TDD terminal at (202) 205-1810. General 
information concerning the Commission can also be obtained by accessing 
its Internet server (https://www.usitc.gov).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Representatives of parties to investigations 
or other proceedings conducted under Title VII of the Tariff Act of 
1930, sections 202 and 204 of the Trade Act of 1974, section 421 of the 
Trade Act of 1974, section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, and North 
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Article 1904.13, 19 U.S.C. 
1516a(g)(7)(A) may enter into APOs that permit them, under strict 
conditions, to obtain access to BPI (Title VII) or confidential 
business information (``CBI'') (section 421, sections 201-204, and 
section 337) of other parties. See 19 U.S.C. 1677f; 19 CFR 207.7; 19 
CFR 207.100, et seq.; 19 U.S.C. 2252(i); 19 U.S.C. 2451a(b)(3); 19 CFR 
206.17; 19 U.S.C. 1337(n); 19 CFR 210.5, 210.34. The discussion below 
describes APO breach investigations and rules violation investigations 
that the Commission has completed during calendar year 2008, including 
a description of actions taken in response to these breaches and rules 
violations.
    Since 1991, the Commission has published annually a summary of its 
actions in response to violations of Commission APOs and the 24-hour 
rule. See 56 FR 4846 (Feb. 6, 1991); 57 FR 12335 (Apr. 9, 1992); 58 FR 
21991 (Apr. 26, 1993); 59 FR 16834 (Apr. 8, 1994); 60 FR 24880 (May 10, 
1995); 61 FR 21203 (May 9, 1996); 62 FR 13164 (March 19, 1997); 63 FR 
25064 (May 6, 1998); 64 FR 23355 (April 30, 1999); 65 FR 30434 (May 11, 
2000); 66 FR 27685 (May 18, 2001); 67 FR 39425 (June 7, 2002); 68 FR 
28256 (May 23, 2003); 69 FR 29972 (May 26, 2004); 70 FR 42382 (July 25, 
2005); 71 FR 39355 (July 12, 2006); 72 FR 50119 (August 30, 2007); and 
73 FR 51843 (Sept. 5, 2008). This report does not provide an exhaustive 
list of conduct that will be deemed to be a breach of the Commission's 
APOs. APO breach inquiries are considered on a case-by-case basis.
    As part of the effort to educate practitioners about the 
Commission's current APO practice, the Commission Secretary issued in 
March 2005 a fourth edition of An Introduction to Administrative 
Protective Order Practice in Import Injury Investigations (Pub. No. 
3755). This document is available upon request from the Office of the 
Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street, SW., 
Washington, DC 20436, tel. (202) 205-2000 and on the Commission's Web 
site at https://www.usitc.gov.

I. In General

    The current APO form for antidumping and countervailing duty 
investigations, which was revised in March 2005, requires the applicant 
to swear that he or she will:
    (1) Not divulge any of the BPI disclosed under this APO or 
otherwise obtained in this investigation and not otherwise available to 
him or her, to any person other than--
    (i) Personnel of the Commission concerned with the investigation,
    (ii) The person or agency from whom the BPI was obtained,
    (iii) A person whose application for disclosure of BPI under this 
APO has been granted by the Secretary, and
    (iv) Other persons, such as paralegals and clerical staff, who (a) 
are employed or supervised by and under the direction and control of 
the authorized applicant or another authorized applicant in the same 
firm whose application has been granted; (b) have a need thereof in 
connection with the investigation; (c) are not involved in competitive 
decisionmaking for an interested party which is a party to the 
investigation; and (d) have signed the acknowledgment for clerical 
personnel in the form attached hereto (the authorized applicant shall 
also sign such acknowledgment and will be deemed responsible for such 
persons' compliance with this APO);
    (2) Use such BPI solely for the purposes of the above-captioned 
Commission investigation or for judicial or binational panel review of 
such Commission investigation;
    (3) Not consult with any person not described in paragraph (1) 
concerning BPI disclosed under this APO or otherwise obtained in this 
investigation without first having received the written consent of the 
Secretary and the party or the representative of the party from whom 
such BPI was obtained;
    (4) Whenever materials e.g., documents, computer disks, etc. 
containing such BPI are not being used, store such material in a locked 
file cabinet, vault, safe, or other suitable container (N.B.: storage 
of BPI on so-called hard disk computer media is to be avoided, because 
mere erasure of data from such media may not irrecoverably destroy the 
BPI and may result in violation of paragraph C of this APO);
    (5) Serve all materials containing BPI disclosed under this APO as 
directed by the Secretary and pursuant to section 207.7(f) of the 
Commission's rules;
    (6) Transmit each document containing BPI disclosed under this APO:
    (i) With a cover sheet identifying the document as containing BPI,
    (ii) With all BPI enclosed in brackets and each page warning that 
the document contains BPI,
    (iii) If the document is to be filed by a deadline, with each page 
marked ``Bracketing of BPI not final for one business day after date of 
filing,'' and
    (iv) If by mail, within two envelopes, the inner one sealed and 
marked ``Business Proprietary Information--To be opened only by [name 
of recipient]'', and the outer one sealed and not marked as containing 
BPI;
    (7) Comply with the provision of this APO and section 207.7 of the 
Commission's rules;
    (8) Make true and accurate representations in the authorized 
applicant's application and promptly notify the Secretary of any 
changes that occur after the submission of the application and that 
affect the representations made in the application (e.g., change in 
personnel assigned to the investigation);
    (9) Report promptly and confirm in writing to the Secretary any 
possible breach of this APO; and
    (10) Acknowledge that breach of this APO may subject the authorized 
applicant and other persons to such sanctions or other actions as the 
Commission deems appropriate, including the administrative sanctions 
and actions set out in this APO.
    The APO further provides that breach of an APO may subject an 
applicant to:
    (1) Disbarment from practice in any capacity before the Commission 
along with such person's partners, associates, employer, and employees, 
for up to seven years following publication of a determination that the 
order has been breached;
    (2) Referral to the United States Attorney;
    (3) In the case of an attorney, accountant, or other professional, 
referral to the ethics panel of the appropriate professional 
association;
    (4) Such other administrative sanctions as the Commission 
determines to be appropriate, including public release of, or striking 
from the record any information or briefs submitted by, or on behalf 
of, such person or the party he represents; denial of further access to 
business proprietary information in the current or any future 
investigations before the Commission, and issuance of a public or 
private letter of reprimand; and
    (5) Such other actions, including but not limited to, a warning 
letter, as the

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Commission determines to be appropriate.
    APOs in investigations other than those under Title VII contain 
similar, though not identical, provisions.
    Commission employees are not signatories to the Commission's APOs 
and do not obtain access to BPI through APO procedures. Consequently, 
they are not subject to the requirements of the APO with respect to the 
handling of CBI and BPI. However, Commission employees are subject to 
strict statutory and regulatory constraints concerning BPI and CBI, and 
face potentially severe penalties for noncompliance. See 18 U.S.C. 
1905; Title 5, U.S. Code; and Commission personnel policies 
implementing the statutes. Although the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) 
limits the Commission's authority to disclose any personnel action 
against agency employees, this should not lead the public to conclude 
that no such actions have been taken.
    An important provision of the Commission's Title VII and safeguard 
rules relating to BPI/CBI is the ``24-hour'' rule. This rule provides 
that parties have one business day after the deadline for filing 
documents containing BPI/CBI to file a public version of the document. 
The rule also permits changes to the bracketing of information in the 
proprietary version within this one-day period. No changes--other than 
changes in bracketing--may be made to the proprietary version. The rule 
was intended to reduce the incidence of APO breaches caused by 
inadequate bracketing and improper placement of BPI/CBI. The Commission 
urges parties to make use of the rule. If a party wishes to make 
changes to a document other than bracketing, such as typographical 
changes or other corrections, the party must ask for an extension of 
time to file an amended document pursuant to section 201.14(b)(2) of 
the Commission's rules.

II. Investigations of Alleged APO Breaches

    Upon finding evidence of an APO breach or receiving information 
that there is a reason to believe one has occurred, the Commission 
Secretary notifies relevant offices in the agency that an APO breach 
investigation has commenced and that an APO breach investigation file 
has been opened. Upon receiving notification from the Secretary, the 
Office of the General Counsel (OGC) prepares a letter of inquiry to be 
sent to the possible breacher over the Secretary's signature to 
ascertain the possible breacher's views on whether a breach has 
occurred.\11\ If, after reviewing the response and other relevant 
information, the Commission determines that a breach has occurred, the 
Commission often issues a second letter asking the breacher to address 
the questions of mitigating circumstances and possible sanctions or 
other actions. The Commission then determines what action to take in 
response to the breach. In some cases, the Commission determines that 
although a breach has occurred, sanctions are not warranted, and 
therefore finds it unnecessary to issue a second letter concerning what 
sanctions might be appropriate. Instead, it issues a warning letter to 
the individual. A warning letter is not considered to be a sanction.
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    \11\ Procedures for inquiries to determine whether a prohibited 
act such as a breach has occurred and for imposing sanctions for 
violation of the provisions of a protective order issued during 
NAFTA panel or committee proceedings are set out in 19 CFR 207.100-
207.120. Those investigations are initially conducted by the 
Commission's Office of Unfair Import Investigations.
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    Sanctions for APO violations serve two basic interests: (a) 
Preserving the confidence of submitters of BPI/CBI that the Commission 
is a reliable protector of BPI/CBI; and (b) disciplining breachers and 
deterring future violations. As the Conference Report to the Omnibus 
Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 observed, ``[T]he effective 
enforcement of limited disclosure under administrative protective order 
depends in part on the extent to which private parties have confidence 
that there are effective sanctions against violation.'' H.R. Conf. Rep. 
No. 576, 100th Cong., 1st Sess. 623 (1988).
    The Commission has worked to develop consistent jurisprudence, not 
only in determining whether a breach has occurred, but also in 
selecting an appropriate response. In determining the appropriate 
response, the Commission generally considers mitigating factors such as 
the unintentional nature of the breach, the lack of prior breaches 
committed by the breaching party, the corrective measures taken by the 
breaching party, and the promptness with which the breaching party 
reported the violation to the Commission. The Commission also considers 
aggravating circumstances, especially whether persons not under the APO 
actually read the BPI/CBI. The Commission considers whether there are 
prior breaches by the same person or persons in other investigations 
and multiple breaches by the same person or persons in the same 
investigation.
    The Commission's rules permit an economist or consultant to obtain 
access to BPI/CBI under the APO in a Title VII or safeguard 
investigation if the economist or consultant is under the direction and 
control of an attorney under the APO, or if the economist or consultant 
appears regularly before the Commission and represents an interested 
party who is a party to the investigation. 19 CFR 207.7(a)(3)(B) and 
(C); 19 CFR 206.17(a)(3)(B) and (C). Economists and consultants who 
obtain access to BPI/CBI under the APO under the direction and control 
of an attorney nonetheless remain individually responsible for 
complying with the APO. In appropriate circumstances, for example, an 
economist under the direction and control of an attorney may be held 
responsible for a breach of the APO by failing to redact APO 
information from a document that is subsequently filed with the 
Commission and served as a public document. This is so even though the 
attorney exercising direction or control over the economist or 
consultant may also be held responsible for the breach of the APO.
    The records of Commission investigations of alleged APO breaches in 
antidumping and countervailing duty cases are not publicly available 
and are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 
U.S.C. 552, and section 135(b) of the Customs and Trade Act of 1990, 19 
U.S.C. 1677f(g). See also 19 U.S.C. 1333(h).
    The two types of breaches most frequently investigated by the 
Commission involve the APO's prohibition on the dissemination of BPI or 
CBI to unauthorized persons and the APO's requirement that the 
materials received under the APO be returned or destroyed and that a 
certificate be filed indicating which action was taken after the 
termination of the investigation or any subsequent appeals of the 
Commission's determination. The dissemination of BPI/CBI usually occurs 
as the result of failure to delete BPI/CBI from public versions of 
documents filed with the Commission or transmission of proprietary 
versions of documents to unauthorized recipients. Other breaches have 
included: the failure to bracket properly BPI/CBI in proprietary 
documents filed with the Commission; the failure to report immediately 
known violations of an APO; and the failure to adequately supervise 
non-legal personnel in the handling of BPI/CBI.
    In the past several years, the Commission completed APOB 
investigations that involved members of a law firm or consultants 
working with a firm who were granted access to APO materials by the 
firm although they were not APO signatories. In these cases, the firm 
and the person using the BPI

[[Page 54074]]

mistakenly believed an APO application had been filed for that person. 
The Commission determined in all of these cases that the person who was 
a non-signatory, and therefore did not agree to be bound by the APO, 
could not be found to have breached the APO. Action could be taken 
against these persons, however, under Commission rule 201.15 (19 CFR 
201.15) for good cause shown. In all cases in which action was taken, 
the Commission decided that the non-signatory was a person who appeared 
regularly before the Commission and was aware of the requirements and 
limitations related to APO access and should have verified his or her 
APO status before obtaining access to and using the BPI. The Commission 
notes that section 201.15 may also be available to issue sanctions to 
attorneys or agents in different factual circumstances where they did 
not technically breach the APO but where their actions or inactions did 
not demonstrate diligent care of the APO materials even though they 
appeared regularly before the Commission and were aware of the 
importance the Commission placed on the care of APO materials.
    The Commission's Secretary has provided clarification to counsel 
representing parties in investigations relating to global safeguard 
actions, section 202(b) of the Trade Act of 1974, investigations for 
relief from market disruption, section 421(b) or (o) of the Trade Act 
of 1974, and investigations for action in response to trade diversion, 
section 422(b) of the Trade Act of 1974, and investigations concerning 
dumping and subsidies under section 516A and title VII of the Tariff 
Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1303, 1516A and 1671-1677n). The clarification 
concerns the requirement to return or destroy CBI/BPI that was obtained 
under a Commission APO.
    A letter was sent to all counsel on active service lists in mid-
March 2007. Counsel were cautioned to be certain that each authorized 
applicant files within 60 days of the completion of an investigation or 
at the conclusion of judicial or binational review of the Commission's 
determination a certificate that to his or her knowledge and belief all 
copies of BPI/CBI have been returned or destroyed and no copies of such 
material have been made available to any person to whom disclosure was 
not specifically authorized. This requirement applies to each attorney, 
consultant, or expert in a firm who has been granted access to BPI/CBI. 
One firm-wide certificate is insufficient. This same information is 
also being added to notifications sent to new APO applicants.
    In addition, attorneys who are signatories to the APO representing 
clients in a section 337 investigation should send a notice to the 
Commission if they stop participating in the investigation or the 
subsequent appeal of the Commission's determination. The notice should 
inform the Commission about the disposition of CBI obtained under the 
APO that was in their possession or they could be held responsible for 
any failure of their former firm to return or destroy the CBI in an 
appropriate manner.

III. Specific Investigations

APO Breach Investigations

    Case 1: The Commission determined that an attorney breached an APO 
when he served pleadings containing CBI upon Department of Justice 
(``DOJ'') attorneys during an appeal in the Court of International 
Trade of actions taken by U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
(``Customs'') to enforce the Commission's exclusion order issued in a 
section 337 investigation. The attorney erroneously assumed that 
because Customs officials who were directly involved in administering a 
section 337 exclusion order were permitted access to CBI by statute, he 
could provide CBI to the Customs officials' DOJ attorneys and the court 
officials in this appeal of Customs' actions. When the attorney was 
informed by the opposing counsel that his pleadings violated the APO, 
he informed the Commission of the possible violation. The DOJ attorneys 
were not able to return the documents containing CBI, because they were 
lost or destroyed, but the CIT successfully returned the pleadings 
containing CBI.
    The mitigating factor noted by the Commission was that the attorney 
had not committed an APO breach in the past two years. The Commission 
also noted as a partially mitigating factor the fact that the attorney 
promptly notified an assistant general counsel at the Commission of the 
breach, although he failed to notify the Secretary of the breach until 
one week after it occurred. The aggravating factors that the Commission 
took into account were the fact that the attorney failed to seek 
guidance from the Commission as to whether his actions would constitute 
a breach of the APO, the fact that sixteen months passed between the 
time when the potential breach was identified and the time when the 
attorney took steps to retrieve the documents containing CBI, and the 
fact that it took the attorney almost four years to cure the breach, 
which made it likely that unauthorized persons saw the CBI. The 
Commission issued a private letter of reprimand to the attorney.
    Case 2: The Commission determined that a lead attorney and a 
computer trade analyst violated an APO, by causing a computer disk 
containing CBI from a Commission investigation to be transmitted to a 
coordinator at a training seminar and seminar attendees. The 
information was put on the disk by the trade analyst at the direction 
of the lead attorney and it was transmitted to the coordinator of the 
seminar by a secretary at the attorney's firm. The secretary was not 
found to have breached the APO. The breach was discovered by an 
attorney attending the seminar, a non-signatory of the APO. The lead 
attorney made immediate efforts to cure the breach and retrieve the CBI 
but not all the documents containing the CBI were retrieved. The 
Commission considered the lead attorney and trade analyst's lack of 
prior breaches, the fact that the breach was unintentional, and the 
prompt and strenuous efforts made by the firm to cure the breach as 
mitigating factors.
    The Commission declined to view the absence of claims of injury by 
the parties whose CBI was disclosed as a mitigating factor, stating 
that it considers the viewing of APO material by unauthorized persons 
to be an aggravating factor, regardless of whether evidence proves that 
a firm was injured by such a breach of the APO. The Commission also 
rejected the lead attorney's argument that his reliance on the trade 
analyst was reasonable because the trade analyst had significant 
experience. The Commission noted that the trade analyst lacked 
significant experience in Commission practice, having come from another 
type of work approximately one year before the breach.
    The Commission viewed as aggravating the fact that the CBI was 
viewed by at least one unauthorized person and the breach was 
discovered by someone other than the lead attorney or a member of his 
firm. The Commission sent private letters of reprimand to the trade 
analyst and the lead attorney.
    Case 3: The Commission determined that an economic analyst breached 
an APO when she lost a package containing BPI. The analyst signed for 
the package when it arrived at her firm, although it was not addressed 
to her. When the attorney to whom the package was intended inquired 
about its location, the economic analyst was unable to find it. She 
thought it may have been destroyed with other materials containing BPI 
which were located in her office. The

[[Page 54075]]

package was never found and the law firm called the Secretary to report 
the breach nine days after the analyst realized that she had signed for 
the package but could not locate it.
    The Commission viewed as mitigating factors the fact that the 
breach was unintentional and that the analyst had not committed a 
breach in the past two years. The aggravating factors in this case were 
that the package was never found, and the fact that the firm failed to 
promptly notify the Commission Secretary of the breach as required by 
Commission rule 207.7(b)(9). The Commission sent a private letter of 
reprimand to the analyst.
    The Commission also sent a letter to two attorneys and a legal 
secretary from the firm informing them that the Commission determined 
that they were not responsible for the breach of the APO. However, the 
letter also stated that the Commission did not believe that the firm 
had taken adequate measures to prevent similar breaches and it 
requested that they review their firm's procedures to ensure that a 
similar loss of BPI by firm personnel would not reoccur.
    Case 4: The Commission found that two attorneys and a paralegal 
breached an APO when the public version of the firm's final comments, 
which contained BPI, was filed with the Commission. The BPI was 
contained on three pages that the paralegal inadvertently attached to 
the comments. The attorney primarily responsible for preparing the 
public version of the final comments for filing did not notice the 
addition of the BPI when he reviewed the submission and he gave it to 
the lead attorney for signing. The lead attorney signed on a page 
containing BPI. The document was then filed with the Commission.
    The Commission determined to hold the lead attorney responsible for 
the breach because he was aware or should have been aware of the other 
attorney's previous breach of the APO. Consequently, the lead attorney 
should have engaged in at least a cursory review of the page he was 
signing. That page contained a conspicuous header stating that it 
contained BPI and there was unredacted BPI just two lines above the 
signature block. The Commission's decision to send warning letters to 
the paralegal and the lead attorney took into account the mitigating 
factors that the breach was unintentional, no BPI was read by any 
person not subject to the APO, the breach was remedied expeditiously by 
the firm, and neither the paralegal nor the lead attorney had committed 
APO breaches in the past two years.
    In evaluating the filing attorney's conduct, the Commission viewed 
as an aggravating factor the fact that this was his second APO breach 
in 13 months and that he had been issued a warning letter for his prior 
breach. The Commission noted that the breach was caused by the 
attorney's carelessness in inadequately reviewing the comments before 
obtaining the lead attorney's signature and filing them. The Commission 
viewed as mitigating factors the facts that the breach was 
unintentional, the attorney's law firm acted expeditiously to remedy 
the breach, and the BPI was not read by any individuals who were not 
signatories to the APO. The Commission decided to send a private letter 
of reprimand to the attorney.
    Case 5: The Commission found that an attorney had breached an APO 
when, after the completion of a section 337 investigation, he provided 
documents containing CBI to a non-signatory associate attorney at a law 
firm that was representing his client in an unrelated law suit. The 
associate attorney sought documents twice from the breaching attorney. 
For the first request the associate attorney provided a letter from an 
attorney for the party from which the CBI was originally obtained, and 
which was a respondent in the section 337 investigation, permitting the 
release of the information to the associate attorney. A second request 
for the release of information was made, but that time the associate 
attorney did not provide a letter permitting the release. He merely 
made a verbal assertion that he had approval to receive the information 
just as he had for the first request. The breaching attorney accepted 
his statement and provided the second set of information containing CBI 
originally obtained from the same section 337 respondent.
    The breaching attorney learned from an attorney for the section 337 
respondent that the associate attorney was not authorized to receive 
the second set of information. The breaching attorney contacted a 
partner at the associate's law firm about the matter and learned that 
the materials were destroyed and had never been copied, they had not 
been distributed to counsel or parties in the unrelated litigation, and 
no one at the firm including the associate attorney had substantively 
reviewed the materials prior to their destruction.
    The Commission determined to issue a warning letter to the 
breaching attorney. It viewed as an aggravating factor that an 
unauthorized person briefly viewed the CBI, although no substantive 
review occurred. It also found several mitigating factors. The breach 
was unintentional and was based on an inaccurate representation by the 
associate attorney that he had the authority to receive the information 
containing CBI; the attorney expeditiously sought to remedy the breach 
and to notify the Commission of the breach, after being informed by 
respondent's counsel; and this was the only breach in which the 
attorney had been involved in the two-year period generally examined by 
the Commission for the purpose of determining sanctions.
    The Commission also found that the attorney had not committed a 
second breach by retaining the information obtained under the APO after 
the Commission investigation had ended. The attorney and the lead 
counsel for respondents had agreed to retain the documents for purposes 
of a separate litigation. The attorney destroyed the documents 
containing CBI once the litigation terminated.
    Case 6: The Commission found that an attorney had breached an APO 
in a section 337 investigation when he transmitted an administrative 
law judge-issued order containing CBI to an unauthorized person. The 
breach was discovered by a non-signatory to the APO, counsel in a 
different section 337 investigation, who alerted another non-signatory 
counsel from whom he had obtained a copy of the order. That attorney 
then notified the breaching attorney.
    In deciding to sanction the attorney by issuing a private letter of 
reprimand, the Commission considered the mitigating circumstances that 
the breach was unintentional, that the attorney acted quickly to cure 
the breach, and that the attorney had not committed a breach in the 
past two years, the period generally examined by the Commission for the 
purpose of determining sanctions. The Commission also considered the 
aggravating circumstances that the CBI was viewed by at least one 
unauthorized person and that the breach was not discovered by the 
attorney or his firm.
    The Commission denied the attorney's request that it consider an 
alleged lack of harm caused by the unauthorized disclosure of the CBI 
to be a mitigating circumstance. The Commission informed the breaching 
attorney that it has an established practice and policy of providing 
strong protection to CBI. Consistent with this, the Commission 
considers the viewing of APO material by unauthorized persons to be an 
aggravating factor, regardless of whether evidence proves

[[Page 54076]]

that a firm was injured by such a breach of the APO.
    Case 7: The Commission found that an attorney breached an APO by 
failing to redact from the public version of his firm's final comments 
the name of a subscription service and information obtained from the 
subscription service under the Commission's APO. The Commission has 
consistently treated this type of information as BPI and the 
information had clearly been marked as BPI. A paralegal and a legal 
secretary who were involved in the matter were found not liable for the 
breach because they acted under the direction of the attorney.
    The Commission viewed as mitigating factors that the attorney had 
not been found liable for a breach within the previous two years, the 
time period the Commission usually considers for the purpose of 
sanctions, no non-signatory read the BPI, and prompt action was taken 
to remedy the breach once the attorney was notified of the breach. The 
Commission also considered two aggravating circumstances. First, the 
Commission staff, not the attorney, discovered the breach. Second, the 
breach was not inadvertent, but rather, the attorney substituted his 
own judgment for the Commission's in treating the BPI in question as 
public information despite clear markings to the contrary. The 
Commission issued a private letter of reprimand to the breaching 
attorney.

Rules Violation Investigations

    Case 1: The Commission found that two attorneys had violated 
Commission rule 207.3(b), 19 CFR 207.3(b), in a five-year review, when 
they served a brief, which was public because no BPI was used, by first 
class mail instead of by hand or overnight mail as required by the 
rules. The certificate of service, which stated that the brief would be 
sent by first class mail, was signed by the lead attorney after he had 
been reassured by the second attorney that, in the past, the firm had 
served public documents in Commission investigations by first class 
mail. The use of first class service resulted in a one day delay in 
receipt of the document.
    The Commission decided to issue a warning letter to the lead 
attorney who had signed the certificate of service, in view of the fact 
that he had no violations in the past two years, the violation was 
unintentional, and the firm took measures to make sure that this kind 
of violation would not occur again.
    The Commission issued to the second attorney a private letter of 
reprimand with two restrictions on his practice before the Commission. 
For a period of 18 months he was not permitted to serve as the final 
decisionmaker in any matter relating to proceedings before the 
Commission and all Commission submissions prepared by the attorney must 
be reviewed by another attorney before filing with the Commission. In 
determining to sanction the attorney in this manner, the Commission 
considered the mitigating circumstances that the breach was 
unintentional and the fact that other parties were not unduly 
prejudiced as a result of the improper service. The Commission also 
considered the aggravating circumstance that he had received two 
previous sanctions, the most recent of which included a restriction on 
his practice, for breaches of the APO in other Commission 
investigations within two years of the violation of the service rule. 
The Commission did take into account that the first of the underlying 
APO breaches had occurred more than four years prior to the issuance of 
the sanction in this rules violation proceeding.
    There was one rules violation investigation in which no violation 
was found:
    Case 1: The Commission determined that sanctions were unwarranted 
but cautioned three attorneys to ensure that their guidance to 
employees and clients in the future respects the Commission's need for 
accurate questionnaire responses to maintain the integrity of 
Commission investigations. A rules violation investigation had been 
conducted pursuant to Commission rule 201.15(a), 19 CFR 201.15(a), when 
comments on their client's completed questionnaire made it appear that 
the three attorneys had advised their clients to answer a question in a 
potentially misleading manner. In response to the letter of inquiry, 
the attorneys explained that the comments were inadvertently left on 
the questionnaire and were never transmitted to the client. They were, 
instead, intended for staff at the law firm to encourage them to seek 
more accurate information from the client. The firm's staff to whom the 
comments were sent recognized them as encouragement to obtain 
additional accurate information from the client and, in response to the 
comments, initiated follow-up contacts with the client to obtain 
additional, accurate information. This was confirmed by e-mail 
communications between the attorneys and the staff demonstrating a 
recognition of the need for accurate reporting.

    Issued: October 15, 2009.

    By order of the Commission.
Marilyn R. Abbott,
Secretary to the Commission.
[FR Doc. E9-25243 Filed 10-20-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7020-02-P