Silver State lawsuit goes nowhere
NEWARK, N.J. — When a Nevadan scooter maker lost patience with cheaper Chinese-made models flooding the United States market, it got some attention by filing an antitrust lawsuit.
Patmont Motor Werks accused the Chinese government and companies there of making it impossible for the Minden, Nev.-based company to sell its products to Chinese. One aim of the lawsuit was to open China’s doors to American-made products.
That improbable goal is now in ashes, when Patmont’s lawyers couldn’t even track down the companies they were suing to serve them court papers.
An increasing number of companies and individuals are likely to face similar frustration. The flood of Chinese imports has triggered a growing number of lawsuits, but individuals and companies often find it impossible to win damages or other legal redress, especially for lawsuits filed overseas. Foreign companies are also filing lawsuits in Chinese courts, and occasionally winning, against local companies caught violating trademarks, copyrights and patents.
The legal obstacles are unlikely to be removed soon, although China has pledged to curb its mounting trade surpluses with the United States and has carried out a nationwide campaign to improve product quality and safety.
Within a decade, however, China is likely to conform more closely to international legal standards, said Gary Hufbauer, a China expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank.
Washington’s growing impatience over Chinese trade practices has prompted dozens of retaliatory bills in Congress, as the U.S. trade deficit with China for 2007 is expected to exceed a record $250 billion.
A federal judge dismissed the Patmont lawsuit two years after it was filed because Patmont had been unable to deliver the lawsuit to the defendants, as court rules require.
The failure was not for lack of trying, Patmont lawyer Brian Irvine said.
“It’s like the Whac-A-Mole game. Once you serve them at one address, you get a letter back saying they are not there,” Irvine said.
Patmont founder Steven Patmont said the lawsuit convinced some American companies to stop selling the Chinese-made knockoffs, but that China has failed to adhere to trade agreements and his company has barely survived a tenfold drop in sales since 2000.