UKIPO outlines approaches to combat fakes online
The availability of counterfeits has continued to increase with the expansion of e-commerce platforms, but this threat is being met head on with an innovative range of approaches.
This is according to Giles York, chief constable of Sussex Police, in the UK Intellectual Property Office’s report “ IP Crime Report 2016/17”, released yesterday, September 7.
York explained that the growing threat of fakes being sold underpins the need to focus on helping consumers understand that products purchased in this way are “often unsafe or potentially harmful with profits supporting criminal lifestyles and organised crime investing in other types of crimes”.
Trade association the Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) explained that the increased use of Facebook Marketplace by counterfeiters to “engage at a ‘local’ level with consumers opens up new avenues for criminals to dupe unsuspecting shoppers into buying often counterfeit and unsafe/dangerous goods”.
The report documents the work achieved in tackling IP crime in the UK over the last year.
One approach to tackle online infringement is an initiative announced in February 2017.
Led by the Alliance for Intellectual Property, the British Phonographic Industry and the Motion Picture Association, and Google and Bing, the initiative’s aim is to reduce the availability of infringing content accessed through online searches.
A voluntary code of practice kick-started the collaboration between the parties to demote links to websites that are dedicated to infringing content for consumers in the UK.
Illegal streaming devices, which undermine the creative industries, have also hit the headlines this year. The products were named as an emerging threat in last year’s IP Crime Report.
Recently commissioned research from the IPO estimates 15%, approximately 6.7 million of UK internet users, consumed at least one item of online content illegally during the 3 months prior to March 2017.
The report also provided some statistics—during 2016, more than 2 million suspected infringing items were detained by Border Force in the UK.
The number of items detained at the EU external border hit 26 million, with the majority of items being tobacco products from China and Hong Kong.
According to the UK’s Ministry of Justice, 433 people were found guilty of offences under the Trade Marks Act and 47 people under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act during 2016, compared with 490 and 69 in 2015.
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