US Sentencing Commission Emergency Guideline Amendment on IP Crimes
The U.S. Sentencing Commission's emergency amendment to the sentencing guideline for criminal infringement of copyrights or trademarks went into effect on September 12. Enacted in response to the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act (the "Act"), the guideline amendment changes the way in which courts determine an offense's "infringement amount," a factor that can result in a sentencing enhancement in federal counterfeiting cases. Under the amendment, in cases in which counterfeit labels are not affixed to goods, the "infringement amount" is to be based on "the retail value of the genuine goods that the counterfeit label would help imitate if the counterfeit goods appear to be identifiable, genuine goods."
Thus, in a case in which an offender trafficked counterfeit tags to be used on designer purses (as in the Giles case), the infringement amount would be based on "the value of the genuine designer purses, if they can be identified and would appear to a reasonably informed purchaser to be genuine."
To be made permanent, the emergency amendment must be re-promulgated on or before May 1, 2007.