Lyle Vander Schaaf

Lyle Vander Schaaf is the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione.  He has an active practice in investigations before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Mr. Vander Schaaf regularly appears before the ITC in intellectual property Section 337 investigations. He also regularly handles safeguards investigations at the ITC and antidumping and countervailing duty investigations before the ITC and U.S. Department of Commerce. He has significant experience handling international trade and Customs matters before USTR and U.S. Customs & Border Protection and in trade litigation before U.S. Federal Courts and NAFTA panels. He also has been active in a number of WTO dispute panel proceedings and counsels clients on WTO, free trade agreements and regional trade issues.

Mr. Vander Schaaf served in the Office of General Counsel of the ITC from 1991 to 1996 and was detailed to the Office of Chairman Watson in 1994. As an attorney with the ITC, Mr. Vander Schaaf handled a variety of patent- and trademark-based Section 337 investigations. He also handled a number of antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and a Safeguards investigation, assisted in GATT – and WTO – related projects of the ITC, and defended the ITC’s determinations in appeals to the U.S. Court of International Trade and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Recently, Mr. Vander Schaaf worked extensively on Section 337 investigations involving bearings and packaging thereof, coamoxiclav and potassium clavulanate products, home vacuum packing machines, semiconductor products, rubber antidegradants, automated mechanical transmission systems, hydraulic excavators, comfort walking shoes, and silicon microphone packages.  His recent antidumping/countervailing duty investigations have involved garlic from China, ironing boards from China, brake rotors from China, sodium metal from France, and silicon metal from Brazil.

Outside of his ITC practice, Mr. Vander Schaaf has an active practice combating counterfeiting of the client’s products, counsels clients on general trademark matters and handles trademark registrations and litigation for clients.

• Journal of International Law & Policy, Editor-in-chief, American University, 1987-1988
• The Legal Media Group Guide to the World’s Leading International Trade Lawyers, March 2007

• Certain Set-Top Boxes, and Hardware and Software Components Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-761
• Certain Electric Fireplaces, Components Thereof, Manuals for Same, Certain Processes for Manufacturing or Relating to Same and Certain Products Containing Same, Inv. No. 337-TA-791
• Certain Wireless Devices with 3G Capabilities and Components Thereof, ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-800
• Certain Electronic Devices For Capturing And Transmitting Images, And Components Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-831
• Certain Video Game Systems and Controllers, ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-743

• Asian Style Kamaboko Fish Cakes, ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-378
• Neodymium-Iron-Boron Magnets, Magnet Alloys, and Articles Containing Same, ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-372
• Salinomycin Biomass and Preparations Containing Same, ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-370* (temporary exclusion order (TEO) proceeding only)
• Bulk Bags and Process For Making Same, ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-338
• Translucent Ceramic Orthodontic Brackets, ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-332

• "ITC Cases are on the Rise," National Law Journal, 2004
• "Intellectual Property Rights," Making Business Sense of the Singapore FTAs (Wong Chian Voen Ed.), 2004
• Co-Author, "Thailand’s Application of Post-Uruguay Round Antidumping Procedures in 2 DULPAHA," Trade Carrier, April-June 1997
• "The International Lending Supervision Act of 1983: Has It Had an Effect on the Latin American Debt Crisis?" The American University Journal of International Law and Policy, 1987

• "When & Why: Weighing the Pros and Cons of Litigating at the ITC - Lessons Learned from In-House Counsel," Panelist, ACI's Expert Forum on ITC Litigation & Enforcement, New York, NY, Feb. 24, 2011
• "IP Enforcement with ITC Section 337 Proceedings and U.S. Customs Actions," Utah Intellectual Property Summit, Salt Lake City, UT, Feb. 18, 2011
• "What High Tech Companies Need to Know About US Government International Trade Agencies, the Remedies They Impose, and the Assistance They Can Offer," Utah Technology Council (UTC) Legal Clinic, Salt Lake City, UT, Feb. 17, 2011

• American Bar Association
  Sections on Intellectual Property and International Law
• American Society of International Law
  Secretary and Newsletter Editor, Section on International Economic Law
• ITC Trial Lawyers Association
• American Intellectual Property Law Association

• Former Administrative Law Judge Carl C. Charneski Joins International Trade Commission Practice at Brinks
• Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione Appoints Vander Schaaf to Lead Washington D.C. Office
• Another ITC Powerhouse Joins IP Firm Brinks
• Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione Wins Landmark Ruling for Respondents in ITC Section 337 Enforcement Proceeding

• Bloomberg News
• Law360
• Managing Intellectual Property
• Bloomberg, Various Media
• Various Media
• Washington Post