Digital drives IP crime wave

More people than ever are being successfully prosecuted for committing intellectual property crime, particularly on the internet or with the use of hi-tech equipment, a new report says.

Defined as the organised counterfeiting of trade marked goods, ranging from clothes to logos to DVDs, ‘IP crime’ over the last 12 months has grown significantly in the digital space.

Auction sites, high-speed broadband and ‘apps’ were blamed for the growth in organised infringements online, whereas IP crime outdoors, at markets for example, has actually fallen.

But such non-digital criminal IP activity remains “a problem area”, adds the report, citing an £11m confiscation order in May of last year for 30,000 pairs of counterfeit Burberry shoes.

Other IP criminals include the gang from Hackney who used high-tech equipment to produce 24 counterfeit bottles of vodka a minute, and the graduate who uploaded movies for sale online having recorded them at his local cinema on his camera phone.

In Coventry, cigarette lighters displaying the Olympic symbol and stating London 2012, which are both protected trade marks, have been seized, with police now looking to trace the suppliers.

Giles York, chairman of the IP Crime Group, the group behind the report, said he was conscious of the risks to intellectual property rights-holders that the sporting event will bring.

He reflected: “Organised IP criminal gangs have already put into place their infrastructures and we should coordinate our combined efforts against this threat.”

But the advance of digital presents the most acute threat, the report hints, saying that just as online technologies increase choices for consumers, the options for the IP criminal increase “equally”.

Underlining the challenge, Mr York, who is also deputy chief constable of Sussex Police, said: “We are witnessing criminals offering online access to live events, electronic media and more with greater ease than ever before (as a result of high speed broadband) and fraudulent websites enticing and misleading consumers into buying fake products.

“The increasing sophistication of online applications, improved accessibility and the growth in high-speed broadband connections have made it much easier for larger more complex digital files to be transferred”.

The government said the recently published IP crime strategy outlines a plan to tackle trade mark criminals, disrupt the supply of pirated and counterfeit goods and reduce the incentives for IP crime.