A New York City couple pleaded guilty to conspiring to import misclassified merchandise in a scheme to import and sell counterfeit Nike sneakers, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. ICE alleged that Ling Zhen Hu, 51, worked for an individual who imported thousands of pairs of sneakers from China that bore the Nike “swoosh” logo and Nike labeling, but were not genuine Nike sneakers. Hu then negotiated the sale of large quantities of the mislabeled sneakers to a Montreal man, Malik Bazzi, who then sold them to customers throughout the U.S. via his warehouses in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Hu’s husband, Xiao Cheng Lin, 50, delivered the sneakers to Bazzi, ICE said. According to ICE, the investigation revealed that Bazzi’s customers then sold the counterfeit Nike sneakers on the street and in retail stores for about half the price of genuine Nike sneakers.

Research in Motion appealed the International Trade Commission’s determination that it infringed a patent on cameraphones held by Kodak, according to a Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit docketing notice. In its investigation of certain mobile telephones and wireless communication devices featuring digital cameras and components thereof (337-TA-703), the ITC found that RIM infringed the patent at issue, but found no violation of Section 337 because of the patent’s obviousness. Kodak also filed an appeal Aug. 7.

The Court of International Trade remanded for a third time the International Trade Administration’s adverse facts available (AFA) rate for Orient¹ in the 2007 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from China (A-570-890). The ITA brought the rate down to 130.81% in its second remand redetermination (from 216.01% in the final results and first remand redetermination), but CIT said the rate is still not within the bounds of commercial reality. CIT also sustained the ITA’s use of another data set to determine the surrogate value for wood inputs.

A former Staff Sergeant in a U.S. Special Forces National Guard unit pleaded guilty Sept. 6 to violating the Arms Export Control Act. According to the Department of Justice, Joseph Debose, 30, of North Carolina, provided multiple shipments of firearms to co-conspirators who then secreted the weapons in packages and transported them to shipping companies to be sent to customers in China. The weapons included numerous semiautomatic handguns, rifles and shotguns, DoJ said. When sentenced, Debose faces up to 20 years in prison.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit adopted changes to its Appellate Mediation Program Guidelines regarding: (1) confidentiality; and (2) settlements that include terms concerning vacatur of a district court ruling. Changes are as follows:

The Court of International Trade ruled that CBP correctly classified plaintiff Telebrands Corporation’s PedEgg foot callus remover as other cutlery rather than a pedicure set. Although the device includes both a blade and emery pads to remove excess skin, the PedEgg is not a set because it is a single instrument, CIT said.

The Court of International Trade sustained a remand redetermination of the final results of the 2007-08 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on silicon metal from China (A-570-806) with respect to the International Trade Administration’s use of Indian company FACOR’s financial statement as a surrogate to calculate Chinese respondents’ selling, general and administrative expenses. The ITA excluded FACOR’s sale of a power plant from the calculation as a non-routine transaction. Defendant-intervenors Shanghai Jinneng International Trade Co., Ltd. and Jiangxi Gangyuan Silicon Industry Co., Ltd. argued that the sale should have been included. But CIT found that they failed to adequately explain “how the sale of an entire power plant by ferroalloy producers, not in the business of selling power plants, amounts to an insignificant, routine transaction, and further, why that determination is the only outcome that the administrative record reasonably supports.”

The Court of International Trade remanded part of the International Trade Administration’s final determination in the countervailing duty investigation of multilayered wood flooring from China (C-570-971) for the ITA to reconsider its inclusion of two companies in a list of non-cooperating companies assigned an adverse facts available rate.

The Court of International Trade rejected CBP’s motion for over $80,000 in penalties from U.S. company Active Frontier International, Inc. (AFI) for falsely declaring country of origin on seven entries of apparel made during 2006 and 2007. CBP failed to establish that the misstatements were “material,” as required by 19 USC 1592 for imposition of a penalty, CIT said. The denial was without prejudice, so CBP is free to amend its complaint.

The Court of International Trade remanded the International Trade Administration’s calculation of normal value for plaintiff Far Eastern New Century Corp. (FENC) in the 09-10 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain polyester staple fiber from Taiwan (A-583-833). After publication of the final results, FENC told the ITA that it had committed a ministerial error by using an earlier version of FENC’s selling, general, and administrative expenses ratio to calculate FENC’s normal value, instead of the corrected version submitted later in the proceeding. The ITA disagreed, so FENC filed suit at CIT. But after the suit was filed, the ITA reexamined the record and found that it “may not have used the corrected normal value” in calculating the final AD rate. The ITA and FENC both requested the remand, and CIT assented.