The new strategy sets out how the government will address IP crime and infringement over the next five years
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has today published the UK’s new Intellectual Property (IP) Counter-Infringement Strategy.
The new 5 year strategy represents a step change in the IPO’s drive to protect IP rights. By partnering with others to set a global gold standard, it aims to make UK IP rights - and rights owned by UK businesses internationally - the best protected in the world.
The strategy seeks to establish how enforcement agencies, government and industry can work together to build upon and improve current structures, ensuring that IP infringement is tackled coherently as a strategic economic and social threat - at home and internationally. It will be underpinned by a strong research plan, and the findings will be shared widely with partner organisations to build a robust evidence base to support and inform work.
5 Key commitments within the strategy include:
IP crime is often considered by criminals as a low-risk but very high-reward crime. The IPO’s new strategy highlights the link between IP crime and other serious criminality such as money laundering, causing significant harm across communities. The strategy recognises that increased public awareness and criminal enforcement are complementary elements in addressing these harms. It commits to working toward a time when IP infringement is seen as socially unacceptable to all, while delivering intelligence driven enforcement action against the perpetrators of IP crime.
The delivery plan will be intelligence-led, harm-focused, and continuously improved. Work within the strategy will be organised under three overarching themes:
The IPO’s Chief Executive, Tim Moss, said:
Alliance for IP Director General Dan Guthrie said:
Detective Chief Inspector Suzanne Ferris, of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said:
City of London Police Assistant Commissioner Pete O’Doherty, National Co-Ordinator Economic and Cyber Crime; Co-Chair IP Crime Group said:
Notes to Editor
1) The OECD found that the total volume of lost sales by UK IP rights owners amounted to £8.6 billion, or 1.95% of their total sales in 2013. The 2019 OECD update report also found that in 2016 at least 86,300 jobs were lost due to counterfeiting and piracy (60,000 in 2013). That represents 1.4% of full-time equivalent employees in the UK (1.15% in 2013):
2) According to the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, counterfeiting is now the second largest source of criminal income worldwide, second only to drugs.
3) The OECD estimates the trade in counterfeit and pirated products amounted to as much as $461 billion in 2019, which equals 2.5% of world trade.
4) IP criminals have been able to use the internet to reach out to consumers using legitimate platforms to advertise illicit counterfeit goods. This has resulted in almost one third of people in the UK having fallen victim to counterfeit scams when shopping online.
5) The IPO has regularly commissioned research into topics relating to the infringement of intellectual property rights. In addition to the Social Media Influencers research published last year, regular reports include the Online Copyright Infringement tracker and the Physical Goods Tracker reports.