Amazon and Vera Bradley Designs were granted damages and legal fees after the two companies sued an online seller of trademark-infringing Vera Bradley goods. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington approved a motion for summary judgment in the July 31 decision after the defendant didn't respond to a complaint and summons. The suit stems from 2017 seizure notices from CBP to Vera Bradley over counterfeit shipments that listed Linda Kurth as the importer of record. After Vera Bradley told Amazon that Kurth's Amazon seller account was selling counterfeit goods, Amazon informed Kurth. Amazon subsequently ordered a bag from Kurth and confirmed it was counterfeit. "Amazon's records reflect that Kurth sold $613,818.77 dollars of Vera Bradley products before Amazon blocked her account from further sales," it said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the weeks of July 29 - Aug. 4:
JSW Steel (USA) Inc. sued the Commerce Department over its denial of a Section 232 product exclusion request on July 30. The steel company said in its complaint that Commerce never sought to verify the objections to the exclusion request submitted by industry competitors. "The Department effectively abandoned the standards established by Proclamation 9705 and the Department’s own regulations, thereby depriving JSW USA of its right to due process and fair treatment," the company said. JSW USA asserts that it was and remains eligible for the exclusions and asked the Court of International Trade to order Commerce to tell CBP to refund the tariffs already paid. Alternatively, the court should remand the issue back to Commerce for proper treatment and consideration, it said.
An auto parts importer can continue with its effort to force CBP and the Justice Department to begin forfeiture proceedings or release car grills that were seized over trademark concerns and have been held for years, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in a July 23 decision. The court ruling is part of ongoing legal proceedings in several venues between the importer, LKQ Corporation, and the government over LKQ's claim that the company has been left unable to challenge the seizures because the proceedings haven't started. The U.S. District Court for Delaware ruled against LKQ on some issues earlier this year (see 1902250013).
A China-based aluminum extrusion manufacturer, its owner and several related companies now face criminal charges over an alleged scheme to evade $1.8 billion in antidumping and countervailing duties by disguising their shipments of aluminum extrusions as pallets, the Department of Justice said in a press release. Chinese billionaire Zhongtian Liu and several other participants in the scheme face up to 20 years in prison on each of 23 counts listed in the indictment, though none of them are currently believed to be located in the U.S., DOJ said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the weeks of July 15-21 and July 22-28:
The Court of International Trade will allow Moen to end its lawsuit over what the company said were misclassified showerheads despite the Department of Justice's objections, CIT said in a July 26 ruling. Moen, which sued CBP in 2015 over the classification of the goods, filed a motion to dismiss because the goods at issue are now subject to the Section 301 25 percent tariffs on imports from China. The DOJ fought the motion because of the already expended time and resources and because Moen will "likely litigate the correct classification of its showerheads if and when goods classifiable under its claimed tariff provision are no longer subject to the 301 duties.”
The Court of International Trade on July 22 denied a challenge from a tobacco product importer of CBP’s procedure for weighing its tobacco products, finding the agency’s “indirect method” that included the weight of additives to be legally and scientifically valid.
A guilty plea related to trafficking of counterfeit goods that was filed as part of a plea agreement that limited appeals of the court's decision can't be appealed, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a July 17 decision. Xiao Xia Zhao pleaded guilty in 2018 in New Jersey district court due to her role in "receiving Importer Security Filing (ISF) numbers from one individual and then providing those ISF numbers to another individual" as part of a counterfeits trafficking scheme. "By providing that information, she assisted in ensuring the contents of the containers identified by the ISF numbers bypassed inspection by customs authorities," the court said. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release and then appealed the decision. Following the appeal, Zhao's lawyers requested to withdraw from the case because "the record shows Zhao’s plea was knowingly and voluntarily made." The appeals court found that "[b]ecause we agree with counsel that no nonfrivolous issues exist for appeal, we will grant the motion to withdraw and affirm the judgment of conviction of the District Court."
Michael Casey of Virginia, vice president for marketing and operations of Casey’s Seafood, pleaded guilty July 18 to participating in a scheme to sell crab meat from Asia and South America mislabled as a "Product of USA," the Department of Justice said in a July 18 news release. "As part of the plea, Michael Casey admitted to knowing that Casey’s Seafood employees were directed to unpack foreign crab meat from containers and re-package that meat into containers bearing the company name and which were labeled 'Product of USA,' falsely labeling more than 183 tons of crab meat, which was then sold to grocery stores and independent retailers,” DOJ said. Casey's father James, who owns the wholesale seafood processing company, was previously convicted as part of the scheme. "Casey also admitted to aiding and abetting James Casey in selling at least 367,765 pounds of crab meat falsely labeled 'Product of USA,' with a total wholesale value of approximately $4,324,916," DOJ said. The scheme continued from "at least as early as 2010" through mid-June 2015, supplementing any Atlantic blue crab the company processed with foreign crab meat in order to fill customer orders while domestic crab harvests were in decline. Crab meat from "Indonesia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Central and South America" was used in the scheme.