ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050052
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
Anti-counterfeit bill aims to do away with fakeries
Counterfeiters, beware. You soon may be faced with stricter penalties than ever before if you're caught with fake goods.
The Anticounterfeiting Consumer Protection Act, introduced last fall by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, passed the full House Tuesday and now awaits final approval by the Senate. If all goes well, Goodlatte said, the bill should be enacted before the end of the year.
The bill will, among other things:
nExpand the power of law enforcement to seize both counterfeit goods and the raw materials and tools used to make them.
nMake it a crime to traffic in computer software labels and packaging.
nStop re-exportation of pirated merchandise.
nEnsure that counterfeit products are destroyed, unless the trademark owner agrees to some other remedy.
U.S. businesses lose more than $200 billion a year to counterfeiters, but consumers get hit hard, too, Goodlatte said. In recent years, he has seen knock-off toy action figures with dangerously small parts, counterfeit shampoo that contained bacteria and fake infant formula that could have caused allergic reactions in babies.
And fake products are often indistinguishable from real ones to consumers.
"These are not unsophisticated things that people are making," Goodlatte said. "Hopefully, this will increase the incentive for law enforcement to really crack down on the criminals and decrease the incentives for criminals to counterfeit." |- MEGAN SCHNABEL
First Colony Corp.
might be for sale
LYNCHBURG - First Colony Corp. shares rose 13 percent after the life insurer said Tuesday it may put itself up for sale.
The stock rose $3.621/2 to $30.621/2 - just half a point above where it was at the time of its initial public offering Dec. 8, 1992.
Based on Tuesday's price, First Colony's 49.3 million shares are valued at $1.51 billion.
First Colony is considering ``a strategic combination or possible sale of part or all of the company,'' Bruce Gottwald, chairman and chief executive, said in a prepared statement. The board has yet to decide among any of the alternatives, he said. |- Bloomberg Business News
Two Marriotts
on selling block
Salem real estate developer and architect T.A. Carter is negotiating with a potential buyer for his Roanoke Airport Marriott and Blacksburg Marriott hotels, an associate confirmed Tuesday.
Carter, who built the 148-room Blacksburg hotel in 1973 and the 320-room Roanoke hotel in 1984, can get a better price for his investments now than he has seen in a while, said Truman Dorton, a controller and vice president at Carter's several corporations. Also, Carter is motivated to sell because he is 68 and is winding down his business operations, Dorton said.
Carter also owns commercial real estate in downtown Roanoke and elsewhere, manages residential real estate and oversees a shopping center in the Virgin Islands, Dorton said. |- Staff report
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