Underwriters Laboratories' certification marks are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and recorded with U.S. Customs, which gives them the same protection against counterfeit imports that recorded trademarks have. Because the UL certification marks have such significance vis-a-vis public safety, Customs reacted swiftly when unsafe electrical imports from China bearing counterfeit certification marks began appearing in the United States some five years ago.

Products with counterfeit marks are not tested for safety, and you can be certain that counterfeiters don't let UL into their factories for compliance inspections.

In 1996, the Office of Strategic Trade (OST), working with UL and with other Customs offices, began a nationwide program to train Customs officers to detect counterfeit UL marks. The program consisted of cargo examinations that targeted shipments at highest risk for bearing the counterfeit marks.

Since the program was launched in 1997, more than 4,000,000 pieces of merchandise bearing counterfeit UL marks have been seized and destroyed. Perhaps the best way to visualize that many seizures is to explain that if the seized merchandise were packed tightly into 40-foot ocean containers placed end to end, the line of containers would be more than three miles long. The seized merchandise included lamps, extension cords, nightlights, Christmas lights, power strips, fans, telephones, radios, power supplies, and computer components.

Here's how the seized products could have injured life and property had they not been intercepted: Among the first seizures were household fans with plastic housing enclosing the motor. During post-seizure testing, the housing erupted in flames and dripped flaming particles. This discovery resulted in the recall of more than 750,000 fans from retail stores.

Many of the seized extension cords could have overheated and started fires because they were made of copper wire too small to handle the amount of electric current. Seized shipments of Christmas lights had no fuse protection; in addition, the copper wiring was too thin to handle the current and wasn't secured around the plug area. Had Customs not intercepted them, the lights could have caused electrical shocks to users -- and at Christmas time, especially, this means children -- and fires in the homes where they were displayed.

But perhaps the worst example of counterfeiters' disregard for public safety in the UL case involved the seizure of ground-fault circuit interrupters. Building codes require these devices to be placed in bathrooms, garages, basements, and the like to guard against electrical shock; they must operate 100 percent of the time to prevent electrocution. The circuit interrupters seized by Customs, however, had no protective circuitry at all. Had they been installed in bathrooms, swimming pools, or other places in the home where people meet water, the results could have been fatal.

Finally, the most disturbing seizures were shipments of nightlights intended for children's rooms. Among other hazards posed by shoddy construction, these nightlights were not polarized as required by UL safety standards. This means that the bulbs could have emitted live charges, so that when plugged into a wall outlet, they could have electrocuted anyone who touched them.

Only a tiny fraction of electrical products on the market bear counterfeit UL marks, but the potential hazards associated with them are so serious that UL has repeatedly publicized its zero-tolerance policy against any counterfeit use of its marks. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) quickly grasped the counterfeit marks' threat to health, safety, and intellectual property, and Assistant USTR Joseph Papovich began talks with Chinese government officials to address the problem at its source.

His efforts led to a major crackdown in China against UL counterfeiters; the crackdown resulted in large seizures of merchandise in both China and the United States. OST continues to support USTR efforts by providing reports and trend analyses on UL counterfeiting activities.

Customs inspectors now routinely check the validity of UL marks when they examine imported merchandise. Ports around the country conduct local interventions that target merchandise at high risk for UL counterfeiting. And OST continues to monitor and support the UL anti-counterfeiting effort within Customs on a daily basis.

This successful joint effort among U.S. Customs, UL Inc., and the USTR demonstrates the determination, and perhaps more important, the ability of these organizations to protect both intellectual property and American consumers from threats posed by imported counterfeit products.