A Pennsylvania man who sent a shipment of fake OtterBox cellphone cases in 2013 to a reseller in Maine was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland to five years of probation on a charge of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods.

Michael Kurnik, 25, of York, Pennsylvania, was also sentenced by Judge George Singal to pay $25,000 in restitution as part of a plea deal in which a second charge of trafficking in counterfeit goods was dismissed.

Kurnik regularly purchased the imitation OtterBox cases from a supplier in China and then resold them in the United States to dealers like the one in Maine, knowing that the products were counterfeits being distributed in violation of federal patent and trademark laws, according to court records.

The reseller in Maine, described in federal court documents only as “Witness #1,” told Kurnik in late May 2013 that he had been contacted by OtterBox and told that OtterBox was going to sue him for selling counterfeit cases on eBay, a prosecution document states.

“Despite being told of the OtterBox lawsuit by Witness #1, the Defendant continued to purchase cellphone cases from China and resell them in the United States,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Wolff wrote in the prosecution filing.

Kurnik sent another shipment of counterfeit cases in December 2013 to the reseller in Maine, who by that point was working with law enforcement. Authorities executed a search warrant at a warehouse in Manchester, Pennsylvania, used by Kurnik and seized about 6,700 counterfeit OtterBox cases, court records state.

Scott Dolan can be reached at 791-6304 or at:

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