The officers' existing powers of search and seizure are being
extended to copyright offences in changes which were recommended in
Andrew Gowers' Review of Intellectual Property, published last
December.
The Minister for Science and Innovation at the Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI), Malcolm Wicks, has put into force a
section of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act which inserts
new sections into the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act giving
Trading Standards officers new powers.
Those officers will now have a general responsibility of
enforcement of copyright infringement, and gives them the right to
make test purchases and seize goods and documents. The order came
into force on 6th April.
"The UK film, music and game industries are among the most
creative and innovative in the world, but peddlers of counterfeits
are costing those industries up to £9 billion a year," said Wicks.
"The taxpayer is also losing out to the tune of £300 million. It's
a serious offence, whether committed by small-scale hawkers or
international crime organisations."
The changes are backed by £5 million in what the UK Intellectual
Property Office (UKIPO) says is new funding for Trading Standards.
The UKIPO is the new name for the UK Patent Office in what is the
implementation of another Gowers recommendation.
The new money will pay for the existing 4,500 Trading Standards
officers to undertake the new duties. Despite Wicks previously
saying that "there'll be an additional 4,500 pairs of Trading
Standards eyes watching counterfeiters and pirates", the UKIPO has
said that what was meant was that existing officers would be newly
deployed to copyright duties.
The Government says it hopes the development will have an impact
on organised crime, which it claims is a beneficiary of organised
piracy. "IP criminals should know that the UK is not a safe place,"
said Wicks. "Their risk of 10 years' imprisonment and unlimited
fines is very real and from this date forward a markedly higher
risk."
