Baldwin, Grothman and Fitzgerald Want Action Against Chinese Company
Bipartisan call comes after Wisconsin company was awarded $106 million in intellectual property theft lawsuit.
Milwaukee Federal Courthouse. Photo by Mariiana Tzotcheva
A bipartisan congressional team has gone to bat for a small Wisconsin manufacturer that won a federal lawsuit against a Chinese furniture giant accused of stealing its intellectual property.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and U.S. Reps. Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah) and Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) joined in letters to three federal agencies urging action against Man Wah Holdings and its American subsidiary.
In letters to the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CSPC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Baldwin, Grothman and Fitzgerald are asking the agencies to investigate Man Wah for violations of various federal laws.
The letter to the CSPC states that Raffel was receiving consumer safety complaints because of defective copies of its cup holders made by Man Wah. The defects “included electrical faults that could have exposed consumers to potential safety risks,” according to the letter.
It asks the product safety commission to investigate whether the knockoff manufacturer broke federal consumer protection laws by not reporting its own “potentially defective and dangerous products” to the agency.
The FTC letter asks for Man Wah to be investigated for possible violations of the federal law prohibiting unfair actions or deception in commerce. The ITC letter seeks an investigation of “harmful trade practices” by the company.
Both letters cite testimony from the federal lawsuit that the Chinese manufacturer produced “cup holders that fraudulently included Raffel’s patent number and manufacturing information.” The knockoff company also sold “dangerously defective knockoffs to unsuspecting suppliers and customers,” the letters state.
Baldwin, Grothman, Fitzgerald urge feds to investigate Chinese firm on Wis. company’s behalf was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.
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Brava to Tammy Baldwin for joining a bipartisan action. Every effort to find common ground across the aisle is important, especially with our current state legislature.