New police unit to tackle intellectual property crime in UK

July 8, 2013

Focusing on counterfeit goods such as clone cartridges will be among the new police unit’s responsibilities, as well as reducing online piracy.

Lexology reports that a new police unit has been launched in the UK which will help to target intellectual property crime such as counterfeit goods and pirate copies of films, music and software.

According to the article, the idea of setting up the new police unit was first announced in December last year, with this latest announcement confirming funding of the unit for two years by the UK Intellectual Property Office, which will provide £2.5 million ($3.7 million/€2.9 million); and the location of the new unit within the City of London Police, which will establish and run the unit and is the UK’s lead police force for fraud.

The unit aims to be up and running from September, with further, longer-term funding hoped to be provided by the music, film and gaming industries. However, criticism has been voiced regarding the amount of funding, which is said to be too little considering the size of the problem – seven million people per month in the UK visit websites offering illegal content, with global pirated music, films and software thought to amount to losses of $80 billion (€62 billion).

To combat the problem, the unit will target the sources of revenue for illegal sites, for example by requesting advertisers and payment processors to avoid working with such sites.

Categories : Around the Industry

Tags : Counterfeiting IP UK