Foreign Counterfeit Prevention Act

Foreign Counterfeit Prevention Act - Amends the federal criminal code to provide that it shall not be a violation of the prohibition against a federal employee disclosing trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information for an officer or employee of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP): (1) at the time that merchandise is presented for examination and thereafter, to provide the owner of a copyright or a registered mark or any person who may be injured by a circumvention of copyright protection systems with any information appearing on the merchandise, including its retail packaging, or a sample or image of such merchandise and its retail packaging, for the purposes of determining whether the merchandise or its packaging infringes the copyright, bears or consists of a counterfeit mark of the registered mark, or is a violation of copyright protection systems; or (2) after a determination is made that merchandise is in violation of copyright protection systems, to provide certain information to persons injured by such violation, including the date of importation, the U.S. port of entry at which the merchandise was seized, a description of the merchandise, the country of origin of the merchandise, the names and addresses of the foreign manufacturer, the exporter, and the importer of the merchandise, and a photographic or digital image of the merchandise.

[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4216 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4216

      To provide for the exchange of information related to trade 
                              enforcement.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 20, 2012

Mr. Poe of Texas (for himself and Mr. Chabot) introduced the following 
       bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To provide for the exchange of information related to trade 
                              enforcement.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Foreign Counterfeit Prevention 
Act''.

SEC. 2. EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION RELATED TO TRADE ENFORCEMENT.

    Section 1905 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Whoever'' and inserting ``(a) Whoever''; 
        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) It shall not be a violation of this section for an officer or 
employee of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at the time that 
merchandise is presented for examination and thereafter, to provide the 
owner of a copyright or a registered mark, or any person who may be 
injured by a violation of section 1201 of title 17, United States 
Code--
            ``(1) any information appearing on the merchandise, 
        including its retail packaging;
            ``(2) a sample of such merchandise and its retail 
        packaging; or
            ``(3) digital images of such merchandise and its retail 
        packaging,
as it was presented to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, without 
redaction, whether imported into or exported from the United States, or 
attempted to be exported from the United States, for the purposes of 
determining whether the merchandise or its retail packaging infringes 
the copyright, bears or consists of a counterfeit mark of the 
registered mark, or is a violation of section 1201 of title 17, United 
States Code.
    ``(c) It shall not be a violation of this section for an officer or 
employee of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, after a determination 
is made that merchandise is in violation of section 1201 of title 17, 
United States Code, to provide information to persons injured by such 
violation, including, but not limited to, the following:
            ``(1) The date of importation of the merchandise seized.
            ``(2) The United States port of entry at which the 
        merchandise was seized.
            ``(3) A description of the merchandise.
            ``(4) The quantity of merchandise seized.
            ``(5) The country of origin of the merchandise.
            ``(6) The name and address of the foreign manufacturer of 
        the merchandise.
            ``(7) The name and address of the exporter of the 
        merchandise.
            ``(8) The name and address of the importer of the 
        merchandise.
            ``(9) A photographic or digital image of the merchandise.
    ``(d) As used in this section--
            ``(1) the term `registered mark' has the meaning given that 
        term in section 45 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1127);
            ``(2) the term `Lanham Act' has the meaning given that term 
        in section 2320(e) of this title;
            ``(3) the term `counterfeit mark' has the meaning given 
        that term in section 2320(e) of this title; and
            ``(4) the term `without redaction' means without deleting, 
        revising, or otherwise obscuring any information, codes, marks, 
        numbers, or any other markings appearing on the merchandise or 
        its retail packaging.''.
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