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Comment by Avtomatk | Hacker News Reader

>There are large categories of products, this one included, where there are ZERO remaining US suppliers.

I don't know very well how patents and intellectual property protection work... But, if there are no suppliers of such a product in the United States (assuming your previous argument as true), then what product is being pirated? if there is none (worth the redundancy), to my understanding, there has to be a vendor whose product is being counterfeited within the united states for it to be taken as an infringement of intellectual property.

Other than that, you were not entitled to a trial? They just confiscated everything and there it ended?

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It was a UL mark. Underwriters Laboratories. They are a company that tests products for electrical safety.

The manufacturer of the AC adapter didn't pay for testing, but put the mark on the adapter. The adapters weren't the main thing I was importing, so I hadn't paid any attention to it in the order process. The technical reason for the seizure was trademark violation.

Oh I understand, that is a really specific detail, they surely deduced that you wanted to sell them (for the amount (100)) although I am not sure if that was your intention. I think there should be a public blacklist of companies that are dedicated to piracy (because it is quite common, especially in China).

>The technical reason for the seizure was trademark violation.

Do you know what a trademark is? This wasn't a trademark violation, it was a fake certification.

The reason for the seizure is I don't want electronics in my house that could burn it down. UL cetifiies that. That's NOT a trademark. That's a certification.

You really don't seem to understand that you were caught trying to import bogus goods. It's also concerning that you are mixing up terms (trademark vs certification), as it casts doubt on the one side of the story I am hearing from you.

I get that it may not be your fault, but the CBP doesn't know that. They don't have a crystal ball to know that you were innocent of it, nor are they EEs who can figure out that's real and what's not. They also shouldn't be. Use a more trustworthy supplier next time.

I have the letters from the CBP. It's all "trademark", no mention of safety, testing, etc. Tons of products are sold with no testing, and no mark, by the way.

I do understand the issues, and would not have sold products using those adapters knowing the UL mark was fake. The cost to get "real" adapters was a trivial portion of the overall cost.

However, that was NOT at all what the CBP was complaining about.

The certification is enforced by having a trademark on the logo, that’s the easiest way to put conditions on the use of a mark.

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