H348257

H348257 July 8, 2025 OT:RR:BSTC:EOE H348257 WMW CATEGORY: 19 U.S.C. § 1337; Unfair Competition Mr. Paul Brinkman Kirkland & Ellis LLP 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20004 Mr. Daniel Valencia DLA Piper LLP (US) 500 Eighth Street, NW Washington, DC 20004 VIA EMAIL: paul.brinkman@kirkland.com, daniel.valencia@us.dlapiper.com, RE: Ruling Request; U.S. International Trade Commission; Limited Exclusion Order; Investigation No. 337-TA-1370; Certain Power Converter Modules and Computing Systems Containing the Same Dear Mr. Brinkman and Mr. Valencia: Pursuant to 19 C.F.R. Part 177, the Exclusion Order Enforcement Branch (“EOE Branch”), Regulations and Rulings, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) issues this administrative ruling in response to the separately filed requests from Quanta Computer Inc. and Quanta Computer USA, Inc. (collectively, “Quanta”) and NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA”), both of which are dated May 16, 2025. The ruling requests were submitted after initial conference calls and preliminary submissions from Quanta, NVIDIA and Vicor Corporation (“Vicor”), as further detailed below. The question presented in these ruling requests is whether the articles at issue, as described in this ruling, are subject to the limited exclusion order (“LEO”) that the U.S. International Trade Commission (“Commission” or “ITC”) issued in Investigation No. 337-TA- 1370 (“the underlying investigation” or “the 1370 investigation”), based on its finding a violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. § 1337 (“Section 337”). The LEO from the 1370 investigation bars the unlicensed entry for consumption into the United States of power convert modules and computing systems containing the same, as defined in ¶ 2 of the LEO, that infringe claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 9,166,481 (“the ’481 patent”) or claims 1-7 of U.S. Patent No. 9,516,761 (“the ‘761 patent”) (collectively, “the asserted patents”) and that are manufactured or imported by or on behalf of (i) Delta Electronics, Inc., Delta Electronics (Americas) Ltd., and DET Logistics (USA) Corporation; (ii) Cyntec Co., Ltd.; (iii) Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (d/b/a, Foxconn Technology Group), Foxconn Industrial Internet Co. Ltd., and FII USA Inc. (a/k/a Foxconn Industrial, Internet USA Inc.); (iv) Ingrasys Technology Inc. and Ingrasys Technology USA Inc.; and (v) Quanta. See Certain Power Converter Modules and Computing Systems Containing the Same, Investigation No. 337-TA-1370, EDIS Doc. ID 843485, Limited Exclusion Order (February 13, 2025). As noted above, this ruling is based on two separately filed requests pursuant to 19 C.F.R. Part 177, which the EOE Branch has adjudicated on an inter partes basis. The proceeding involved the three parties with a direct and demonstrable interest in the question presented by the ruling requests: (1) Quanta, a ruling requester and respondent in the underlying investigation at the Commission; (2) NVIDIA, a ruling requester and non-respondent third party that did not participate in the underlying investigation; and (3) Vicor, the other interested party and complainant from the underlying investigation as the owner of the asserted patents. See 19 C.F.R. § 177.1(c). Furthermore, we note that determinations of the Commission resulting from the underlying investigation or a related proceeding under 19 C.F.R. Part 210 are binding authority on CBP and, in the case of conflict, will modify or revoke by operation of law any contrary CBP ruling or decision pertaining to Section 337 exclusion orders. Finally, the parties have been asked to identify confidential information, including information subject to the administrative protective order in the underlying investigation, with [[red brackets]] in their submissions. See 19 C.F.R. §§ 177.2, 177.8. If there is information in this administrative ruling not currently bracketed in red [[ ]] that either party believes constitutes confidential information, and should be redacted from the published ruling, the parties are to contact CBP within ten (10) working days of the date of this ruling to indicate the same. See, e.g., 19 C.F.R. § 177.8(a)(3). I. BACKGROUND A. ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1370 The Commission instituted Investigation No. 337-TA-1370 based on a complaint filed by Vicor. Certain Power Converter Modules and Computing Systems Containing the Same, Inv. No. 337-TA-1370, EDIS Doc. ID 844518, Commission Opinion (Feb. 27, 2025) (“Comm’n Op.”) at 2. The complaint, as supplemented, alleged a violation of Section 337 by reason of infringement of certain claims of the ‘481 patent, the ‘761 patent, and the ‘950 patent. Id. The notice of investigation named as respondents Delta Electronics, Inc. of Taipei, Taiwan, Delta Electronics (Americas) Ltd. of Fremont, California, and Delta Electronics (USA) Inc. of Plano, Texas; Cyntec Co., Ltd. of Hsinchu, Taiwan; Quanta Computer Inc. of Taoyuan City, Taiwan, Quanta Cloud Technology Inc. of Taoyuan City, Taiwan, Quanta Cloud Technology USA LLC of San Jose, California, and Quanta Computer USA, Inc. of Fremont, California; Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (d/b/a Foxconn Technology Group) of Taipei City, Taiwan, Foxconn Industrial Internet Co. Ltd. of Shenzhen, China, FII USA Inc. (a/k/a Foxconn Industrial Internet USA Inc.) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ingrasys Technology Inc. of Taoyuan City, Taiwan, and Ingrasys Technology USA Inc. of San Jose, California. Id. The Commission’s Office of Unfair Import Investigations (“OUII”) was named as a party in the investigation. Id. 2 On September 27, 2024, the Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) issued a final initial determination (“FID”) finding a violation of Section 337. Id. at 3. Specifically, the ALJ determined that a violation of Section 337 occurred in the importation into the United States, the sale for importation, or the sale within the United States after importation, of the accused products that infringed the ‘481 and ‘761 patents, but not as to the ‘950 patent. Id. On December 4, 2024, the Commission issued a notice in which it determined to review the FID in part and requested submissions responding to the Commission’s issues under review and on remedy, the public interest, and bonding. Id. at 5. In the limited exclusion order, the Commission ordered that “[p]ower converter modules and computing systems containing the same that infringe one or more of claim 1 of the ’481 patent and claims 1-7 of the ’761 patent and are manufactured abroad by, or on behalf of, or imported by or on behalf of Respondents or any of their affiliated companies, parents, subsidiaries, agents, or other related business entities, or their successors or assigns, are excluded from entry for consumption into the United States, entry for consumption from a foreign-trade zone, or withdrawal from a warehouse for consumption, for the remaining terms of the Asserted Patents, except under license from, or with the permission of, the patent owner or as provided by law.” Certain Power Converter Modules and Computing Systems Containing the Same, Inv. No. 337- TA-1370, EDIS Doc. ID 843485, Limited Exclusion Order (February 13, 2025) at 2. The Commission defined the articles covered by the limited exclusion order as “power converter modules used in data center server, artificial intelligence and cloud computing systems, to power artificial intelligence (‘AI’) accelerators, tensor processing units (‘TPU’), graphical processing units (‘GPU’) and central processing units (‘CPU’), and computing systems containing the same. Id. at 3. B. Articles At Issue According to NVIDIA, the “NVIDIA products that are the subject of this request include, at least, the products listed below (‘NVIDIA Blackwell Products’): o ‘Blackwell’ is the name of the architecture of a Graphics Processing Unit (‘GPU’). NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs may be included on ‘mezzanine’ boards marketed as ‘SXM6’ or [[ ]] boards. Unlike the products accused in the 1370 Investigation, the GPU mez

Accordingly, the NVIDIA Blackwell Products at issue in this inter partes proceeding are subject to exclusion from entry unless and until they are found, under the 15 

 second theory referenced above, not to be subject to the scope of the investigation as defined in the limited exclusion order. 
Sincerely,
 Dax Terrill Chief, Exclusion Order Enforcement Branch CC: Mr. Louis Mastriani Polsinelli 1401 Eye Street, NW Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 lmastriani@polsinelli.com 16