Queen’s speech: selling counterfeit goods to be made criminal offence

Stealing registered designs and selling counterfeit products for profit will become a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison, the government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has announced. The measure, confirmed in the Queen’s speech, will provide designers of cars, smart phones, furniture, computers and other manufactured items with the same level of protection that prohibits the distribution of pirated DVDs and films. According to the brief outline given to parliament, the bill in which the measure will appear is intended to “make it easier for businesses to protect their intellectual property”. The changes come in response to the Hargreaves review of intellectual property rights, which was commissioned by the prime minister and published in 2011. The design industry in the UK is estimated to be worth at least £35.5bn a year. The new sanctions, it is proposed, will cover only the deliberate copying, importing or marketing of designs for commercial gain that have been formally registered with either UK or EU authorities. Such privileged, registered status usually lasts for up to 25 years. The IPO report describes the change as “a significant deterrent effect against deliberate copying that current civil sanctions do not supply”. At present firms have to pursue a civil action against those they allege have infringed their patent rights. The report adds: “The introduction of criminal sanctions for the counterfeiting and piracy of copyright protected [DVDs and films] provides a precedent.” Those found guilty of pirating copyrighted DVDs and films for commercial gain face up to 10 years in prison. A similar maximum sentence level will apply to those deliberately infringing design patents. The report argues that a fake iPhone steals the Apple design “as much as it does the trademark and any copyright existing in applications stored on it. Extending criminal sanctions to designs will reflect the ‘suite’ of theft that has occurred and forms a necessary weapon in the armoury of enforcement authorities.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/may/08/counterfeit-goods-criminal-offence