President George W. Bush signed the “Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act” H.R. 32 at a White House ceremony on March 16, 2006 to strengthen U.S. laws to combat the counterfeiting of goods.

In his remarks the President said that the problem of counterfeiting as grown in recent years costing Americans hundreds of billions of dollars each year and harming the economy.

	Photo Credit: White House photo by Kimberlee Hewitt

“Counterfeiting hurts businesses. They lose the right to profit from their innovation. Counterfeiting hurts workers, because counterfeiting undercuts honest competition, rewards illegal competitors. Counterfeiting hurts consumers as fake products expose our people to serious health and safety risks. Counterfeiting hurts the government. We lose tax revenue. We have to use our resources of law enforcement to stop counterfeiting. Counterfeiting hurts our national security, as terrorist networks use counterfeit sales to sometimes finance their operations,” Bush said.

Specifically the bill is designed to:

• Strengthen Our Laws Against Trading Counterfeit Labels And Packaging. While it was already illegal to manufacture, ship, or sell counterfeit products, this legislation closes a loophole allowing the shipment of falsified labels or packaging, which counterfeiters could then attach to fake products in order to cheat consumers by passing off poorly made items as brand-name goods. By closing the loophole, we will help keep honest Americans from losing business to scam artists - and protect consumers from being cheated out of their hard-earned dollars.
• Strengthen Penalties For Counterfeiters And Gives Prosecutors New Tools. This bill requires courts to order the destruction of all counterfeit products seized as part of a criminal investigation and requires convicted counterfeiters to turn over their profits and any equipment used in their operations. This bill requires those convicted of counterfeiting to reimburse the legitimate businesses they exploited.

In FY 2005, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 8,022 seizures of counterfeit goods with a domestic value of more than $93 million.