May 31, 2006

A U.S. district judge has found Suplimet Corp., a Florida-based supplier of mobile phone accessories, in contempt of a prior injunction that prevented the firm from trafficking in counterfeit Nokia products.

In the civil proceeding, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez of the Southern District of Florida awarded Nokia damages of nearly $1.4 million against Suplimet and Hermann Lozano, one of the company’s principals.

Lozano is now serving a six-year sentence in federal prison as a result of a criminal prosecution of Suplimet.

Suplimet’s Web site indicates it remains in business as a wholesale supplier of mobile phone accessories to clients in the Americas and Asia.

The company’s site touts its devotion to “honesty,” “transparency” and “professionalism.”

According to Nokia, the company has been working to strengthen its anti-counterfeiting efforts to protect its brand integrity and its consumers from potentially dangerous, counterfeit products.

Indeed, Nokia has a unit devoted to brand protection. Nokia has blamed counterfeit batteries for a handful of incidents in which the company’s handsets have exploded.

The original criminal charges against Suplimet and its principals, Hermann and Xavier Lozano, specified that the now-convicted defendants had been trafficking in counterfeit batteries and other accessories bearing counterfeit trademarks of Nokia, Motorola Inc. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P.

Source: RCR