UK IP Crime Report 2014/15: Executive Summary

                             UK IP CRIME REPORT 2014/15

In the following week, China IP will showcase the IP Crime Report 2014/15 released by UK Intellectual Property Office. What is the scale of IP Crime in UK? What Action is being Taken to Tackle IP crime in UK? The sepcial focus this week will lead you to the answers.


The annual UK IP Crime Report 2014/15 provides an insight into the scale and scope of counterfeiting and piracy in the UK and an overview of the work being undertaken to tackle these threats. It is produced by the UK Intellectual Property Office that established and runs the IP Crime Group - a cohort of representatives from private industry, law enforcement agencies and government departments.

The 2014/15 results show that in many areas the growth of IP crime is stabilising, with promising signs that the IP enforcement activities of the group are having an impact:

Crimestoppers have noted a overall fall in IP crime reported to them
The number of reports to Crimestoppers relating to auction sites and markets has fallen significantly by 71% and 94% respectively.
But there are other emerging trends that will inform the group’s activities during 2015/16. These include:

Continued growth in investigation in the use of social media to seek counterfeit items
Growth in the sales of high value counterfeit items such as handbags, watches and electrical items.
LOCAL IMPACT OF IP CRIME

IP crime takes place close to home and has local consequences. Trading Standards authorities deal with the consequences of IP crime every day; four out of five of them have found IP infringing activities taking place in ordinary high street shops, and over half have caught IP criminals operating out of private residences. Car boot sales, street stalls, and pubs and clubs also continue to be IP crime hotspots.

Tobacco, clothing, alcohol, footwear and DVDs were the most frequently investigated counterfeit products. The evidence from Trading Standards indicates that there are strong links to benefit fraud, organised crime, drug dealing and violence - and this has a real impact on the safely of individuals and communities.

Much of the IP Crime Group’s work in 2014/15, and in previous years, has sought to tackle these problems - and is showing results. The National Markets Group’s Real Deal initiative has led to the seizure of over 30,000 counterfeit items and nearly 400 markets have signed up to the Real Deal Charter to commit to tackling the sale of counterfeit goods on market stalls. The Anti-Counterfeiting Group has worked with 40 Trading Standards authorities and 13 Police Forces throughout the UK to tackle local IP hot spots.

THE ONLINE CHALLENGE


The challenge of dealing with online counterfeiting and piracy cannot be underestimated. Sellers enjoy the perceived anonymity of the online world and ever greater access to new customers via closed social media groups. The online sale of counterfeit items remains a significant problem, but has not increased significantly from 2013/14 after a significant increase in recent years.

Law enforcement and industry have responded to this threat by developing new ways of disrupting and removing online IP crime. The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) are suspending thousands of rogue websites, diverting views and providing tools to ensure brands do not place advertising on infringing websites; the Anti-Counterfeiting Group are collaborating with Facebook to remove images of counterfeit items; the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) have submitted millions of URLs to search engines for their removal from search results.

DELIVERING RESULTS


The IP Crime Group are making great strides in delivering real results in the fight against IP crime and raising awareness of the dangers and consequences of counterfeiting and copyright infringement.

Co-ordinated action is a real strength of IP Crime Group members. The partnerships that have delivered great results in 2014/15 include:

PIPCU’s Operation Creative - a ground-breaking approach to tackling IP Crime by disrupting and preventing websites from providing unauthorised access to copyrighted content
BPI’s action against Dancing Jesus - jailing two individuals behind an online forum giving access to tens of thousands of illegal links to music
The Federation Against Copyright Theft’s action against illegal pay TV services
The Intellectual Property Office and the Food Standards Agency (FSA)’s Operation OPSON -dealing with tons of fake and substandard food in partnership with almost 50 other countries
The Infringing Website List - law enforcement and the advertising industry working together to remove advertising from the most-infringing websites.

All of this work is supported by huge efforts to help educate consumers and businesses to respect IP owned by others. A great deal has been achieved through industry, law enforcement and government working together and we can look forward to Creative Content UK in 2015/16 to build on this success.