Counterfeit Goods

United States v. Liu, 731 F.3d 982 (9th Cir. 2013)

In a criminal copyright prosecution, 17 U.S.C. § 506(a), the term “willfully” requires proof that the defendant intended to violate a criminal law, not just that he or she intended to make a copy of a copyrighted work. In a case involving counterfeit labels, the term “knowingly” requires proof that the defendant knew that the labels were counterfeit, not just that he knew that he was trafficking in labels that happened to turn out to be counterfeit.

United States v. Yi, 460 F.3d 623 (5th Cir. 2006)

With regard to one of counterfeit counts of this indictment, the evidence was insufficient to show that the defendant was aware that he was selling counterfeit Nike sandals.

United States v. Habegger, 370 F.3d 441 (4th Cir. 2004)

Defendant was charged with trafficking in counterfeit goods, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2320. The Fourth Circuit concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support the trafficking element of the offense. The term “traffic” means transport, transfer, or otherwise dispose of, to another, as consideration for anything of value, or make or obtain control of with intent so to transport, transfer, or dispose of.” In this case, there was insufficient proof of any consideration. The government argued that the defendant transferred the goods to his customer in order to foster good will and encourage subsequent counterfeit transactions. Yet, there was no proof that the purchaser was going to make any additional purchases, or was going to pay for these goods. “For a shipment of goods to constitute consideration, there must be more than a mere hope on the part of the sender that the recipient will purchase goods in the future.”