[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 11 (Monday, March 20, 2006)]
[Pages 482-484]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act

March 16, 2006

    Thank you. Welcome. Thanks for coming. In a few moments, I will sign 
a bill that protects the hard work of American innovators, strengthens 
the rule of law, and helps keep our families and consumers safe. The 
Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act has earned broad support, 
and I want to thank all those who helped get this bill passed for being 
here today. I want to thank the lawmakers from both political parties 
for getting this piece of legislation to this desk. I want to thank the 
consumer protection groups who have joined us as well. Thanks for your 
hard work on this important piece of legislation.
    I want to thank the Attorney General, Al Gonzales, who has joined 
us; the Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez; my Secretary of Labor, 
Elaine Chao. Thank you all for being here. I appreciate the chairman of 
the Judiciary--House Judiciary, Jim Sensenbrenner, for joining us today. 
I also want to thank the bill's sponsor, Joe Knollenberg from Michigan, 
as well as Bobby Scott from Virginia. Thank you three Members for being 
here. The Senators claim they're voting on important legislation; 
otherwise they would have been here too. [Laughter]
    This economy of ours is strong; it's getting stronger. We grew at 
3.5 percent last year. The national unemployment rate is 4.8 percent. 
People are buying homes. The small-

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business sector is strong. Productivity is up. Our country is 
productive; it's innovative; it's entrepreneurial. And we've got to keep 
it that way.
    One of the problems we have is that people feel comfortable, at 
times, in trying to take a shortcut to success in the business world. 
They feel like they can copy existing products instead of designing 
their own. In order to keep this economy innovative and entrepreneurial, 
it's important for us to enforce law, and if the laws are weak, pass new 
laws to make sure that the problem of counterfeiting, which has been 
growing rapidly, is arrested, is held in check.
    Counterfeiting costs our country hundreds of billion dollars a year. 
It has got a lot of harmful effects in our economy. 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 our--
counterfeiting hurts consumers because fake products expose our people 
to serious health and safety risks. Counterfeiting hurts the Government. 
We lose out on tax revenue. We have to use our resources for law--of law 
enforcement to stop counterfeiting. Counterfeiting hurts national 
security because terrorist networks use counterfeit sales to, sometimes, 
finance their operations.
    This administration and Congress have worked together to confront 
the illegal threat--the real threat of illegal activity such as 
counterfeiting. And the bill I'm signing today is an important step 
forward.
    The bill helps us defeat counterfeiting in two key ways. First, the 
bill strengthens our laws against trading counterfeit labels and 
packaging. In the past, the law prohibited the manufacturing, shipping, 
and--or selling of counterfeit goods, but it did not make it a crime to 
ship falsified labels or packaging, which counterfeiters could then 
attach to fake products.
    This loophole helped counterfeiters cheat consumers by passing off 
poorly-made items as brandname goods. By closing the loophole, we're 
going to keep honest Americans from losing business to scam artists.
    Secondly, the bill strengthens penalties for counterfeiters and 
gives prosecutors new tools to stop those who defraud American 
consumers. The bill requires courts to order the destruction of all 
counterfeit products seized as a part of a criminal investigation. The 
bill requires convicted counterfeiters to turn over their profits as 
well as any equipment used in their operations, so it can't be used to 
cheat our people again. The bill requires those convicted of 
counterfeiting to reimburse the legitimate businesses they exploited. 
These commonsense reforms will help law enforcement to crack down on 
this serious crime. We've got to get the counterfeiters and their 
products off the streets.
    The tools in the bill I sign today will become a part of our broad 
effort to protect the creativity and innovation of our entrepreneurs. 
This administration is leading an initiative called STOP--Strategy 
Targeting Organized Piracy. Nine Federal agencies are coming together in 
this initiative, including the Department of Justice, which has launched 
the most aggressive effort in American history to prevent intellectual 
property violations. We've expanded computer hacking and intellectual 
property units in U.S. Attorney's offices all across the country. We're 
posting specially trained prosecutors and FBI agents at American 
embassies in Asia and Eastern Europe. We're working with other nations 
and the World Trade Organization to promote strong intellectual property 
laws around the globe. We're cooperating with the private sector to 
raise awareness of counterfeiting so we can help stop fraud before it 
starts.
    These efforts are getting some results. Last year, we dismantled a 
piracy ring in Massachusetts that was planning to sell more than 30,000 
counterfeit hand bags and shoes and necklaces and other items. With 
partners overseas, we broke up a prescription drug counterfeiting 
network and seized more than $4 million in phony medicine. With the help 
of 16 countries on 5 continents, we removed more than a $100 million 
worth of illegal online software, games, movies, and music. This is a 
really important effort, and as we call upon folks to send a message to 
the counterfeiters, ``We're not going to tolerate your way of life,'' 
that we need to give them all the tools necessary to do their jobs. And 
this bill

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I'm going to sign here in 30 seconds does just that.
    Again, I want to thank you all for being here to help honor these 
legislators that crossed the partisan divide to help protect this 
country from those who feel like they can sell illegal products and 
counterfeit and steal our--steal intellectual property. Good work. 
Thanks for coming. Now let's sign the bill.

Note: The President spoke at 3:07 p.m. in Room 350 of the Dwight D. 
Eisenhower Executive Office Building. H.R. 32, approved March 16, was 
assigned Public Law No. 109-181.