WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives yesterday passed the ‘Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act,’ the bill which many aftermarket businesses and associations have been lobbying in support of.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) at the beginning of the 109th Congress with the support of MEMA and its members who helped craft the bill and worked for its passage.
“We are very pleased that this important legislation has now passed both Houses of Congress,” said MEMA president and CEO Bob McKenna. “Passage of the ‘Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act’ was a very high priority on our legislative agenda to our brand protection initiative for automotive aftermarket.”
The ‘Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act’ extends federal seizure authority to include not only the infringing product, but also the tooling, equipment and supplies used to produce and traffic counterfeit goods and criminalizes production of stickers, tags boxes or other items used to traffic fake products. The bill also expands the current definition of trafficking to include the import or export counterfeit goods and clearly specifies that it is illegal to give away counterfeit goods in exchange for some future benefit – in effect, the “bartering” of counterfeit goods. Networks of counterfeiters have used these loopholes to frustrate investigation and prosecution under current law.
“We wish to thank Congressmen Knollenberg for introducing this legislation, for his exceptional leadership on combating counterfeiting and his loyalty to our industry,” McKenna said. “Counterfeiting is a crime that is stealing good American manufacturing jobs and hurting the brand image of legitimate manufacturers that play by the rules. This tough new law will help us better protect our intellectual property, protect the safety and quality of aftermarket parts sold in America and put more counterfeiters out of business.
The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) also issued a statement commending Congress for taking this important step in the global battle against counterfeiting.
“Protecting the intellectual property of our members is a primary and ongoing concern for SEMA,” said Chris Kersting, president and CEO of SEMA. “This legislation closes loopholes that have allowed counterfeiters to market their fake goods. SEMA members make huge investments in the American workplace when they create, produce and market their products. Bogus copies quickly exploit that expenditure.”
The Senate passed the “Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act” by unanimous consent on February 15. 2006. The bill now goes on to the president for his signature.
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