On December 1, U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California Howard Matz vacated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) convictions of Lindsey Manufacturing (“LMC”) and its executives Keith Lindsey and Steve Lee (collectively, “Lindsey Defendants”), citing numerous instances of misconduct by the prosecutors–prosecutors once so proud of the jury convictions of Lindsey, et
January 2012
The Government Generally Gets Its Way
Originally published by the Journal of Commerce in January 2012 –
Did you see the press coverage in August 2011 surrounding the raid by Fish + Wildlife and Homeland Security (ICE) Investigators on Gibson Guitar’s facilities in Nashville and Memphis, TN? As that case proceeds, one is forced to contemplate its relationship to the November…
Hitachi Decision: A Cautionary Tale
The recent decision in the Hitachi Home Electronics case illustrates how far Congress and Customs can veer from factoring common sense into their legislative and regulatory pronouncements. The case was decided at the Court of International Trade (CIT) on April 30, 2010 and affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on October…
Intellectual Property Rights Holders Score One
Trademark holders have long had to clear a frustrating series of legal hurdles in order to get their hands on infringing product detained and/or seized by CBP. Section 818(g) of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 now authorizes CBP to share unredacted samples of imported products, packaging, and labels that are suspected of being…
Proposed Consolidation of Commerce Department and Other Agencies
On January 13, 2011, President Obama unveiled a proposal to create what was described as a new export agency. This activity comes on the heels of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service’s closure of offices in Caracas, Venezuela; Dakar, Senegal; Florence, Italy; Tijuana, Mexico; Vancouver, Canada; and Vladivostok, Russia that occurred at the end of…
Implementing the Korea, Panama, and Colombia FTAs
One of the many important questions being asked at the start of 2012 is when should international traders expect to take advantage of the new free trade agreements (FTAs) with Korea, Panama, and Colombia? Once President Obama issues the authorizing Executive Orders, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will still need to publish proposed regulations. Based…