New funding is to be given to the UK’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), a specialist unit set up last year to tackle the UK’s growing problems with digital piracy, intellectual property infringement and counterfeit goods.
The funding was granted earlier this month and will provide funding for the unit for the next two years, up to 2017. The commitment, which is seen as part of the Government’s fight against IP crime, was announced to the national crime unit at the Anti-Counterfeiting Group Conference in London.
The PIPCU is a 21-person team consisting of detectives, police staff investigators, analysts, researchers, an education officer and a communications officer, and is backed by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
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 £1.3bn a year in lost profits and taxes.
“With more money now being invested in areas 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 counterfeits.”
Since the PIPCU came into action last year, they have investigated more than £29m worth of IP crime and suspended 2,359 internet domain names, as well as diverting more than five million visits from copyright infringing sites to the PIPCU domain suspension page. Previously, the IPO had supported the PIPCU with £2.56m of funding for two years starting from September 2013, with the additional £3m being added to build upon the unit’s success so far.