Europol and EUIPO create organization to fight piracy and counterfeiting

Research organization Europol, together with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, has set up an organization to fight piracy and counterfeiting. The Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition, or IPC3, must, among other things, facilitate research.

In a statement, the two organizations state that the trade in counterfeit goods makes up 2.5 percent of global trade and is causing a lot of damage to the affected companies. To help fight breaches both offline and online, the organizations decided to create the IPC3. The task of the new coalition is to support investigative services by facilitating cross-border investigations into infringements and monitoring the practices of infringers.

In addition, the new organization will standardize legal tools to combat infringements and educate the public. The press release only discusses physical goods, such as counterfeit medicines and car parts. However, in a report published Tuesday, EUIPO identifies online content sharing as a “business model for infringing intellectual property rights.” It also mentions that in this way malware is often spread and phishing is carried out.