United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's convictions and sentences on three counts of criminal copyright infringement and one count of trafficking in counterfeit labels are vacated and remanded, where: 1) the term "willfully" in 17 U.S.C. section 506(a) requires the government to prove that a defendant knew he was acting illegally rather than simply that he knew he was making copies, and that to "knowingly" traffic in counterfeit labels under 18 U.S.C. section 2318(a)(1) requires knowledge that the labels were counterfeit; 2) the district court improperly instructed the jury otherwise and the errors were not harmless, and 3) the district court should dismiss one of the copyright infringement counts on remand because counsel was ineffective by failing to raise an obvious statute of limitations defense.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/01/2013
• Published 10/01/2013

Judges

• NGUYEN

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel