ITC Administrative Law Judge Determines that Analysis Group Client Syensqo Satisfied Domestic Industry Requirement and Demonstrated a Section 337 Violation

September 17, 2026

Analysis Group was retained by Mayer Brown on behalf of Syensqo, a global specialty chemicals company and the complainant in a Section 337 investigation before the US International Trade Commission (ITC), to analyze the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement and economic issues related to bond. Syensqo alleged that several Chinese manufacturers infringed its patent covering certain polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) resins used in lithium-ion batteries. Because its US manufacturing facilities for battery-grade PVDF resins and key feedstocks were still under development, Syensqo sought to satisfy the economic prong of Section 337’s domestic industry requirement by demonstrating that a domestic industry was in the process of being established.

An Analysis Group team led by Vice President David Maber supported Managing Principal John Jarosz, who submitted an expert report and provided economic analysis and testimony at deposition and the evidentiary hearing. Mr. Jarosz analyzed budgets, contracts, financial transactions, government filings, and other business records to demonstrate the steps Syensqo had taken toward establishing a domestic industry for the resins protected by the asserted patent. He also analyzed business, financial, and market evidence to assess the likelihood that a domestic industry would be established in the future, including estimating the portions of Syensqo’s planned US investment and employment attributable to the patented resins and the domestic value added to those products. In addition, Mr. Jarosz analyzed competition between Syensqo’s patented battery-grade PVDF resins and the accused products, as well as industry licensing practices, to assess the need for – and an appropriate amount of – a bond during the 60-day Presidential Review Period (PRP).

In an initial determination, the ITC administrative law judge found that Syensqo had demonstrated that a domestic industry was in the process of being established for the resins protected by the asserted patent and that a violation of Section 337 had occurred. The administrative law judge recommended that the ITC issue an exclusion order barring importation of the Chinese manufacturers’ infringing PVDF resins and impose a bond on infringing imports during the PRP.