Intellectual property crime and your business
Protecting your business from intellectual property crime
To enforce your intellectual property (IP) rights, you first need to make sure you have the correct level of legal IP protection. These vary according to the particular type of asset, but will usually include:
Once you have the appropriate form of protection, you need to monitor its use.
How to monitor against IP infringement
Once you secure your IP rights, you should continually monitor against possible infringement and crime. Here are some practical steps you can take to monitor against IP infringement:
- Put in place early warning systems so you know as soon as possible if counterfeit or pirated copies of your products are being made or sold. Ask your customers, suppliers and employees to help with this.
- Ensure that your branded goods have packaging with special devices such as holographs, codes, watermarks, radio-frequency identification tags or integrated serial-number plates, and make sure that the enforcement agencies know how to read these devices. It also helps to change packaging designs slightly to frustrate counterfeiters.
- Protect digital assets with watermarking, coding, encryption and other digital devices to frustrate potential pirates and counterfeiters.
- Make sure that IP registrations are secure and up to date.
- Maintain secure inventories, shred or eliminate sensitive waste, and ensure that all designs, design elements and production components are properly protected.
- Avoid the use of counterfeit components in your products. Avoid also the infiltration of counterfeit goods into your supply chain. To help with this, you can download the Supply Chain Toolkit from the GOV.UK website (PDF, 125K).
You will need to keep all of your protection mechanisms under review, and amend them regularly in the light of new threats.
Your business workplace may also be used as a site for IP crime. For more information, read about IP crime in the workplace.
Trade associations
Some businesses choose to join a trade association to help them protect their rights. These exist for different kinds of products, ranging from music to software, electrical products to luxury goods. These organisations can provide additional expertise and resources to pursue IP infringement and help prevent IP crime.
Protecting your goods from infringing imports
If you suspect that goods infringing your rights are arriving at UK borders, you should lodge an Application for Action (AFA) with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). If border officers then identify counterfeit goods being imported, they can detain them, giving you time to launch court action.
You will have to confirm with officials that the goods are infringing your rights, and may have to pay the costs of seizing and storing the goods.
If you want to protect your rights in one or more EU member states after 1 January 2021, see how to apply for action to protect your intellectual property rights.
Find further guidance on IP crime and infringement.