Legal Alert: Clark S. Cheney Appointed Newest ITC Judge

On March 5, 2018, Chairman Rhonda K. Schmidtlein announced that the International Trade Commission named Clark S. Cheney its newest administrative law judge, replacing Judge Theodore Essex, who retired in August 2017. As an ALJ, Judge Cheney will preside over intellectual property-based investigations conducted under Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. §1337).

Judge Cheney brings years of intellectual property law experience to the ITC bench. After obtaining a degree in electrical engineering, Judge Cheney worked as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office while attending law school. After law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable William C. Bryson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. After several years in the private sector, Judge Cheney returned to government service as an attorney advisor and Acting Assistant General Counsel at the International Trade Commission for six years. During his tenure with the ITC's Office of General Counsel, Judge Cheney participated at the Commission review level in over thirty Section 337 investigations covering a wide variety of technologies. Notably, Judge Cheney served as the ITC's lead counsel on numerous appeals from those investigations, including Suprema, Inc. v. International Trade Commission, where he persuaded the en banc court to affirm the Commission’s authority to adjudicate allegations of inducement of patent infringement. 796 F.3d 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2015). In addition, while at the ITC, Judge Cheney was detailed to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where he provided legal advice on intellectual property issues relating to trade agreements. Prior to rejoining the ITC as an ALJ, Judge Cheney served as an administrative law judge with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Social Security Administration.

Judge Cheney is a 2002 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Utah. He is a member of the Bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, California, the District of Columbia and Utah.