The objective of UK’s intellectual property crime strategy is to reinforce the UK as an attractive place to do business by making it unattractive to criminals engaged in intellectual property crime, while protecting consumers and society. It identifies a number of practical actions that will be led by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to enable enforcement agencies to deal more effectively with intellectual property crime. This strategy comes as the latest addition to a number of actions taken by the government regarding intellectual property including review of current intellectual property laws and policies, adoption of recommendation on actions to improve intellectual property regime, updating copyright laws to bring copyright to the 21^st century and coordination intellectual property and European strategies.

The National Intellectual Property Crime Strategy was launched in August 2004 and focused on:

·       Setting up intellectual property crime group bringing together rights-holders, trading standards officers, customs authorities and other government agencies to create a co-ordinated approach to tackle intellectual property crime.

• Creating a regular intellectual property crime report.
• Creating a central co-ordinating role for the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

This action was part of the government's initiative to understand and address businesses problems when it comes to intellectual property, which was re-inforced again lately. Since 2004, there has been an increase in the number of government agencies involved in dealing with intellectual property crime and in investigations and intelligence systems that integrate with statutory bodies and a greater international response to the threats posed by intellectual property crime.

However, since 2004 technology has made giant steps, especially in the online music, e-books business and computer games, which require the adoption of a new intellectual property crime strategy, to reinforce the attractiveness of the UK as a place to do business, to make the UK unattractive to criminals engaged in intellectual property crime and to protect consumers and society.

Here are some indications how this can be achieved:

• Encouragement to use the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in order to recover the criminal gains from intellectual property crime.
• A well collaborated approach, including intelligence sharing and increasing the knowledge base, between enforcement bodies, government agencies and industry in order to maximise their operational activities.
• Resilience in the light of the current economic climate surrounding the dedication of resources.

It is also recommended that, consideration is given as to how technology may be used fight crime. In this regard, it is recommended that, the IPO facilitates discussion across industry interests of how technology can be better used to prevent counterfeiting and piracy, with results and progress reported in the annual intellectual property Crime Report published by the IPO on behalf of the intellectual property Crime Group. The IPO should also develop an action plan on tackling counterfeiting and criminal piracy online which will identify the key threats and bring new industry and enforcement partners into mainstream dialogue with government. This will include work on websites that are used for digital piracy, sales via auction sites and pop-up websites of pirate and counterfeit goods, and the challenges posed by the increased use of small parcels bought online from overseas to import infringing goods.

It is true that, the UK has a range of government departments and agencies working to tackle intellectual property crime and a number of different enforcement agencies who have specific remits. This enables the UK to be flexible in its response to intellectual property crime, but it is important that there is a clear picture of organisations’ respective roles and how initiatives link up.

To address this, the IPO will provide an overview to businesses and enforcement bodies of the broad case for action against intellectual property crime, who does what to tackle it and how to get involved. This includes work within government to improve the effectiveness of enforcement action, such as further training of Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors about intellectual property crime.

In order to improve co-ordination on investigations and intelligence, it is suggested that:

• Steps are taken to improve dialogue between those who hold intellectual property-related intelligence to improve co-ordination.
• Enforcement agencies are encouraged to work together to understand existing barriers to collaboration and to overcome them.
• The IPO initiates discussions between enforcement agencies and industry on how industry can best support enforcement action.
• The IPO will support some regional co-ordination of trading standards work on intellectual property crime in 2011-12 and, subject to satisfactory performance, in 2012-13.

A stronger evidence base to support policy-making and operational decision-making can be achieved by:

The IPO facilitating a move towards a common methodology for assessing the scale and economic impact of intellectual property crime, and criminal gains resulting from it.

Enforcement agencies take the initiative to develop and apply common methods for calculating the volume and value of seizures where these are not already in place.

The IPO should work with the EU Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy, to ensure that any UK-based action informs and aligns with the EU approach.

All articles are for general purposes and guidance only and do not constitute legal or professional advice.

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