IP protection gets £3m government injection

The fight against IP crime has been given a major boost with the government announcing it will continue to fund the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) until 2017. 

The Minister for Intellectual property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, confirmed that £3m would be allocated to the City of London Police’s national crime unit at Anti-Counterfeiting Group Conference in London on October 23.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe said: “We’ve seen significant success in PIPCU’s first year operation. This extra support for the unit will help them 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 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, police national coordinator for economic crime, said: “The government committing to the 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.”

PIPCU was set up in 2013 and is now a 21-person team consisting of detectives, police staff investigators, analysts, researchers, an education officer and a communications officer.