West Virginia Code 47-2-14b – Misdemeanor trademark counterfeiting; penalty
(a) A person commits the crime of misdemeanor trademark counterfeiting if the person commits trademark counterfeiting as described in section fourteen-a of this article and the total retail value of all of the items bearing the counterfeit mark or services that are identified by the counterfeit mark is less than $1,000.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 47-2-14b
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- mark: includes any trademark or service mark, entitled to registration under this article whether registered or not. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Retail value: means :
(A) For items that bear a counterfeit mark and are components of a finished product, the regular selling price of the finished product in which the component would be utilized. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
- trademark: means any word, name, symbol or device or any combination thereof used by a person to identify and distinguish the goods of such person, including a unique product, from those manufactured and sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods, even if that source is unknown. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
(b) The penalty for misdemeanor trademark counterfeiting is:
(1) For a first violation, confinement in jail for not more than one year, or a fine not exceeding $2,000, or both a fine and confinement; and
(2) For each subsequent violation, confinement in jail for not more than one year, or a fine not exceeding $5,000, or both a fine and confinement.
(3) If the person convicted under this section is a firm, partnership, corporation, union, association or other organization capable of suing and being sued in a court of law, the maximum fine that may be imposed is $10,000.