The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (NIPRCC) is a U.S. government center overseen by

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

, a component of the

U.S. Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

. The NIPRCC coordinates the U.S. government's enforcement of

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

laws. The NIPRCC was created in 2000, under the then-

U.S. Customs Service The United States Customs Service was the very first federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. federal government. Established on July 31, 1789, it collected import tariffs, performed other selected border security duties, as well as conducted c ...

as part of the implementation of the

Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over ...

's 1998 International Crime Control Strategy. The International Crime Control Strategy was developed to address the national security threat of international crime as determined by

Presidential Decision Directive National security directives are presidential directives issued for the National Security Council (NSC). Starting with Harry Truman, every president since the founding of the National Security Council in 1947 has issued national security directive ...

(PDD) 42 in 1995. The NIPRCC hosts representatives from multiple government agencies that run in the center's activities. In alphabetical order, these entities include: * U.S. Customs and Border Protection *

Defense Criminal Investigative Service The Defense Criminal Investigative Service is the criminal investigative arm of the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense. DCIS protects military personnel by investigating cases of fraud, bribery, and corruption; preventing the ...

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bus ...

(DOC) * U.S. International Trade Administration *

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...

* U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations *

U.S. General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gove ...

's Office of Inspector General *

INTERPOL The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cr ...

Naval Criminal Investigative Service The United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is the primary law enforcement agency of the U.S. Department of the Navy. Its primary function is to investigate criminal activities involving the Navy and Marine Corps, though its ...

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...

* U.S. Postal Inspection Service *

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

's Office of International Intellectual Property Enforcement Pilot programs are in place where representatives of the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

and the Government of Mexico Tax Administration Service serve in the center in order to coordinate U.S. enforcement efforts with that of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

Purpose

Counterfeit NFL merchandise at an IPR Press Conference

The NIPRCC was created as a response to congressional criticism of federal enforcement efforts in the 1990s. Numerous Federal

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term ...

agencies were and continue to share responsibility with investigating and prosecuting various intellectual property violations. The ''NIPRCC'' was created to promote information sharing, investigative and prosecutorial coordination, to provide a centralized reporting location and information resource for private businesses and the public, and to avoid duplicative efforts. For example, law enforcement agencies at the center share information gathered from their investigations. Emerging criminal trends and new infringing technologies are identified more quickly, and the information shared with the enforcing field officials. The center address intellectual property crimes ranging from counterfeit pharmaceuticals, to illegally copied films, television, and music, to counterfeit machinery and other merchandise procured by the federal government, to counterfeit federal uniforms, badges, and other insignia, to consumer goods, to postal fraud. The NIPRCC also works with the

Office of the United States Trade Representative The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is an agency of the United States federal government responsible for developing and promoting American trade policy. Part of the Executive Office of the President, it is headed by the ...

to identify trade barriers to U.S. companies and products due to the intellectual property laws, such as

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

and

trademarks A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

, in other countries. This is reported annually in a

Special 301 Report The Special 301 Report is prepared annually by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) that identifies trade barriers to United States companies and products due to the intellectual property laws, such as copyright, patents ...

, named after Section 301, as amended of the

Trade Act of 1974 The Trade Act of 1974 (, codified at ) was passed to help industry in the United States become more competitive or phase workers into other industries or occupations. Fast track authority The Trade Act of 1974 created fast track authority fo ...

, that mandates it. The NIPRCC was featured heavily in the U.S. Government's 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement and highlighted by a 2011 ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique st ...

'' broadcast on counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

Operation In Our Sites

Operation "In Our Sites" is an initiative led by the NIPRCC to detect and hinder intellectual property violations on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

. The Operation is the culmination of investigations of

websites A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wiki ...

that are suspected of hosting the illegal downloading of copyrighted media, the sale of counterfeit goods, and products that threaten public safety, such as counterfeit pharmaceuticals. In an undercover capacity, NIPRCC investigators download or acquire suspected counterfeit merchandise from the websites and their affiliates, to identify those websites that were involved in the distribution of stolen content or counterfeit goods. The Center shares this information with ICE's

Homeland Security Investigations The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

, which obtains a seizure warrant from a federal magistrate judge to seize the website domain name until the case can be adjudicated. In the past, these domains have included:

tvshack.net Richard O'Dwyer (born 5 May 1988) is a British entrepreneur & computer programmer who created the TVShack.net search engine while a student at Sheffield Hallam University. In May 2011, the U.S. Justice Department sought to extradite O'Dwyer f ...

, tvshack.cc, movies-links.tv, filespump.com, now-movies.com, planetmoviez.com, thepiratecity.org, zml.com, ninjavideo.net, ninjathis.net and strikegently.com. Visitors to these websites are greeted with a graphic bearing the seals of the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

, the NIPRCC and

Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

. The graphic also includes the following text:

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.iprcenter.gov/ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Intellectual property organizations 2008 establishments in the United States Domain name seizures by United States

Purpose

Operation In Our Sites

See also

References

External links