The Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) has applauded passage this week by the House of Representatives of the “Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act.”

The bill was introduced by Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., at the beginning of the 109th Congress with the support of MEMA and its members who helped craft the bill and worked for its passage.
“We are very pleased that this important legislation has now passed both Houses of Congress,” said MEMA president and CEO Bob McKenna. “Passage of the “Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act.” was a very high priority on our legislative agenda to our brand protection initiative for automotive aftermarket.”
The “Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act,” extends federal seizure authority to include not only the infringing product, but also the tooling, equipment and supplies used to produce and traffic counterfeit goods and criminalizes production of stickers, tags, boxes or other items used to traffic fake products. The bill also expands the current definition of trafficking to include the import or export counterfeit goods and clearly specifies that it is illegal to give away counterfeit goods in exchange for some future benefit – in effect, the “bartering” of counterfeit goods. Networks of counterfeiters have used these loopholes to frustrate investigation and prosecution under current law.
McKenna said, “Counterfeiting is a crime that is stealing good American manufacturing jobs and hurting the brand image of legitimate manufacturers that play by the rules. This tough new law will help us better protect our intellectual property, protect the safety and quality of aftermarket parts sold in America and put more counterfeiters out of business.
The Senate passed the “Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act” by unanimous consent on Feb. 15. 2006. The bill now goes on to the president for his signature.
The FBI estimates that product counterfeiting costs U.S. businesses $200 billion to $250 billion annually. Product counterfeiting is estimated to cost American automotive suppliers approximately $12 billion in lost sales annually. MEMA’s has created a Brand Protection Council to share best industry practices to detect and prevent product counterfeiting, educate law enforcement and media to the problem and lobby for stronger laws and intellectual property rights protection at home and abroad.
MEMA represents more than 700 motor vehicle product manufacturers with nearly 12,000 U.S. plant locations and 830,000 workers. Together, these companies keep the U.S. automotive and truck industry supplied with the components that enable it to produce some 17 million vehicles annually and keep the 214 million vehicles on the road with replacement products and services. MEMA supports its members through its three market segment associations: Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA), Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association (HDMA) and Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA).