An antiquities dealer pleaded guilty to smuggling Egyptian cultural property into the U.S. and making a false statement to law enforcement authorities, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Two Chinese nationals were charged in a 46-count superseding indictment for a variety of charges including software piracy and illegally exporting technology to China, reports Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The indictment charges that between April 2008 and June 2011, Xiang Li distributed over 500 pirated copyrighted works to at least 325 purchasers located in Delaware, at least 27 other states and over 60 foreign countries. More than one-third of the purchases were made by individuals within the U.S.
Whether copyrighted works obtained legally abroad can be imported into the U.S. without their owners' "authority" will be judged by the Supreme Court, which granted cert Monday to Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons. The 2nd, 3rd and 9th U.S. circuit courts of appeal have issued varying opinions on the relationship between Copyright Act Section 602(a)(1), which requires owner authority for import, and the first-sale doctrine codified in Section 109(a), which allows resale of copies "lawfully made" without an owner's permission (See ITT Online Archives [Ref. 12041667]). The Supreme Court failed to decide the same question in a 2010 case, Costco v. Omega, concerning the resale of imported foreign watches, deadlocking 4-4 without the participation of Justice Elena Kagan, who had taken part in the case as U.S. solicitor general.
A Pennsylvania man was charged with smuggling counterfeit Viagra and Cialis pills into the U.S. The case is being investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. An HSI investigation revealed that Randy Hucks rented several mail boxes at a U.S. Postal Facility in Philadelphia on behalf of businesses that he allegedly owned under such names as Bargain Basket Inc., Fashionista Inc. and Fashionista Emporium Inc. As part of the alleged scheme, Hucks illegally imported 10,188 counterfeit Viagra pills and 3,040 counterfeit Cialis pills from factories in China. If convicted, Hucks faces up to 100 years in federal prison and a fine of $5 million.
The Court of International Trade is requesting comments by May 14, 2012, on a Notice of Proposed Amendments to the Rules for Review and Comment. The proposals pertain to CIT Rule 54.1, and include, among other things, a requirement that applications for attorney’s fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act be filed within 30 days after the date of final judgment (the Rule previously stated that applications must be filed within 30 days after the court enters final judgment). A new sentence also says the 30-day statutory period for filing an application under the Equal Access to Justice Act begins to run after the expiration of the time period for filing an appeal. Proposed amendments to Rule 54.1 are available here.
The Court of International Trade remanded the results of the International Trade Administration’s initial remand of the 2005-06 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India (A-533-820). CIT sustained the ITA’s remand redetermination of Indian intervenor-defendant Essar’s duty-drawback claim in response to domestic plaintiffs’ arguments, as well as its decision to use invoice date as the date of sale, rather than the date of the letter of credit, as it had in the original final results. However, CIT remanded the initial remand results (i) for application of the ITA’s new policy on adjusting cost of production in accordance with the adjustment to Essar’s export price resulting from its duty-drawback claim, and (ii) to allow for the correction of a ministerial error discovered by Essar and agreed to by the ITA. CIT says that the ITA has until May 25, 2012 to amend and correct the initial remand results. (Slip Op. 12-48, dated 04/11/12, Judge Aquilino)
The Court of International Trade denied the U.S. Government’s motion to amend an August 2011 judgment against defendants Great American Insurance Company of New York and Washington International Insurance Company. The government moved to amend the judgment, in which the CIT granted in part the government’s request to recover antidumping duties on bonds covering entries subject to the AD order on freshwater crawfish tail meat from China (A-570-848), in order to collect pre and post-judgment interest. CIT denied the government’s Rule 59(e) motion to amend the judgment because the Government’s request was to consider the issue for the first time, rather than reconsider the issue, which contravenes the purpose of a Rule 59(e) motion. The CIT did not consider the Government’s argument that it is entitled to prejudgment under 19 USC 580. (CIT Slip Op. 12-49, dated 04/11/12, Judge Goldberg)
A Miami businessman pleaded guilty in connection with the illegal receipt, purchase and sale of ozone-depleting refrigerant gas that had been smuggled into the U.S., following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Criminal Investigation Division and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The investigation revealed that Carlos Garcia, 53, of Mar-Cone Appliance Parts Co., would routinely seek out and arrange the purchase of black market hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22), which is a widely used refrigerant for residential heat pump and air-conditioning systems, from various importers who did not hold the required unexpended consumption allowances, totaling about 55,488 kilograms of restricted HCFC-22, with a fair market value of approximately $639,458. The refrigerant gas was distributed by Mar-cone throughout the United States.
More than $896,000 in proceeds from the distribution of counterfeit sports apparel as the result of an investigation into the sale of counterfeit goods on commercial websites were seized by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) and the Department of Justice. The investigation also resulted in the seizure of seven domain names engaged in the sale of counterfeit goods. The funds were seized from interbank accounts and three PayPal accounts.
The Court of International Trade announced that, effective May 1, 2012, it has approved certain increases in fees for services provided by the CIT. Specifically, CIT increased fees for, among other things, original admission of an attorney to practice (now $76), records retrieval (now $53), filing/indexing in cases where a case filing fee has not been paid (now $46), etc. CIT said the changes flow from an increase in the district court miscellaneous fee schedule promulgated under Title 28 U.S.C. § 1914.