In my October 24, 2016, blog-post titled, “U.S. Government Resources Dedicated to the Investigation and Prosecution of IP Crime,” I detailed the considerable resources the U.S. dedicates to the fight against IP crime.[1]
On December 15th of this year, the U.S. Departments of State and Justice, respectively, announced another step it has taken in furtherance of that commitment. The Department of Justice (DOJ) now has five (5) Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinators (IPLECs) in various parts of the world.
Here is a bit of history on the program and it’s current status as detailed in the December 15th DOJ press release titled:
Department of Justice and Department of State Launch Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinator (IPLEC) Network: Five Specialized Prosecutors Deployed to Provide Training and Technical Assistance to Foreign Law Enforcement in Selected Regions:
“The IPLEC program was created in 2006, with the first IPLEC stationed in Bangkok, Thailand. The program now has grown to a network of five prosecutors, posted in:
Abuja, Nigeria;
Bucharest, Romania;
São Paulo, Brazil;
Bangkok, Thailand and
Hong Kong S.A.R.
"The network is designed to ensure that experienced U.S. prosecutors are located in high-impact regions to enhance the capacity of individual countries to investigate and prosecute IP crimes, and to develop regional networks to more effectively deter and detect IP crimes." [2]