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21 USC § 611 - Devices, marks, labels, and certificates; simulations 

---
identifier: "/us/usc/t21/s611"
source: "usc"
legal_status: "official_prima_facie"
title: "21 USC § 611 - Devices, marks, labels, and certificates; simulations"
title_number: 21
title_name: "FOOD AND DRUGS"
section_number: "611"
section_name: "Devices, marks, labels, and certificates; simulations"
chapter_number: 12
chapter_name: "MEAT INSPECTION"
subchapter_number: "I"
subchapter_name: "INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS; ADULTERATION AND MISBRANDING"
positive_law: false
currency: "119-84"
last_updated: "2026-04-17"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
source_credit: "(Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, title I, § 11, formerly 9th par., 34 Stat. 1263; renumbered § 11 and amended Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 1, 8, Dec. 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 584, 589.)"
---

# § 611. Devices, marks, labels, and certificates; simulations

**(a)** **Devices to be made under authorization of Secretary** No brand manufacturer, printer, or other person, firm, or corporation shall cast, print, lithograph, or otherwise make any device containing any official mark or simulation thereof, or any label bearing any such mark or simulation, or any form of official certificate or simulation thereof, except as authorized by the Secretary.

**(b)** **Other misconduct** No person, firm, or corporation shall—

**(1)** forge any official device, mark, or certificate;

**(2)** without authorization from the Secretary use any official device, mark, or certificate, or simulation thereof, or alter, detach, deface, or destroy any official device, mark, or certificate;

**(3)** contrary to the regulations prescribed by the Secretary, fail to use, or to detach, deface, or destroy any official device, mark, or certificate;

**(4)** knowingly possess, without promptly notifying the Secretary or his representative, any official device or any counterfeit, simulated, forged, or improperly altered official certificate or any device or label or any carcass of any animal, or part or product thereof, bearing any counterfeit, simulated, forged, or improperly altered official mark;

**(5)** knowingly make any false statement in any shipper’s certificate or other nonofficial or official certificate provided for in the regulations prescribed by the Secretary; or

**(6)** knowingly represent that any article has been inspected and passed, or exempted, under this chapter when, in fact, it has, respectively, not been so inspected and passed, or exempted.

---

**Source Credit**: (Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, title I, § 11, formerly 9th par., 34 Stat. 1263; renumbered § 11 and amended Pub. L. 90–201, §§ 1, 8, Dec. 15, 1967, 81 Stat. 584, 589.)

## Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to .

### Amendments

1967—, clarified application to brand manufacturers and printers of existing prohibition against counterfeiting official marks, labels or certificates, the provisions with respect to forgery, unauthorized use or failure to use official marks, or similar items, and similar offenses, and existing prohibitions with respect to false statements in official or nonofficial certificates, and added restriction upon possession of official devices, or devices, labels, meat, or other articles bearing counterfeit official marks, counterfeit official certificates, or similar items, and prohibition against false representations.

## Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 1967 Amendment

Amendment by  effective , except that with respect to equines (other than horses) and their carcasses and parts thereof, meat, and meat food products thereof, amendment effective upon expiration of sixty days after , see , set out as an Effective Date note under .