The fight against digital piracy and counterfeit goods
was today boosted by £3m of new Government funding to the City of London Police
Intellectual Property Crime Unit
Minister for Intellectual Property, Baroness
Neville-Rolfe announced the government’s funding commitment to the national
crime unit at the Anti-Counterfeiting Group Conference in London. The unit
has now been operating for one year and this new funding will cover the next
two years, up to 2017.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe said:
“We’ve seen significant success in PIPCU’s first
year of operation. This extra support will help the unit to build on this
impressive record in the fight against intellectual property crime, which costs
the UK at least
£1.3 billion a year in lost profits and taxes.
With more money now being invested in ideas than
factories or machinery in the UK, it is vital that we protect creators and
consumers and the UK €™s economic growth. Government and industry must work
together to give long-term support to PIPCU, so that we can strengthen the UK’s
response to the blight of piracy and counterfeiters. City of London Police Commander Steve Head, who is the Police
National Coordinator for Economic Crime said:
“The Government committing to fund the Police
Intellectual Property Crime Unit until 2017 is fantastic news for the City of
London Police and the Creative Industries, and very bad news for those that
seek to make capital through intellectual property crime.”
Since its launch in September 2013, PIPCU has delivered significant results. It has:
- Investigated more than £29 m worth of IP
crime and has suspended 2,359 internet domain names - Seized more than £1.29 m worth of suspected
fake goods - Diverted more than 5 million visits from
copyright infringing sites to the PIPCU domain suspension page - Set up Operation Creative, a ground-breaking
initiative designed to disrupt and prevent websites from providing unauthorised
access to copyrighted content, and the Infringing Website List.
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