Representatives of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Justice testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held yesterday to discuss the progress of the PRO-IP Act and proposed legislation such as the PROTECT IP Act, specifically on the IP law enforcement efforts.
IP enforcement coordinator (IPEC) Victoria Espinel also testified.
“Determining the legitimacy [of counterfeit or pirated goods] and being able to partner with the appropriate rightsholders are our biggest challenges,” said Allen Gina of CBP.
Gina and Erik Barnett of ICE pointed to the recent seizure of counterfeit Cisco equipment that was on its way to the US Marine Corps as one example of effective engagement with the private sector. In that case, a CBP officer intercepted and informed an ICE agent about the fakes, and the defendant was ultimately sentenced to 51 months in a federal prison.
“We worked diligently with Cisco,” said Barnett. “ICE needs the support of the private sector.”
CBP made 19,959 seizures of counterfeit and pirated goods last year, and is on track this year to reach 25,000, said Gina. That compares to 3,500 seizures in 2001 and 14,600 in 2006.
Barnett said another key challenge is that “more and more counterfeits are coming in through the parcel services” as a result of e-commerce. “There are some real resource challenges In working backwards from a parcel,” said Barnett.
Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma noted that CBP assessed $1.1 billion in fines between 2001 and 2006 but only collected $2.7 million of that. Since 2006 collections have only gone up by 3%.
Gina said that CBP “has been challenged” in reaching the individuals who are accountable, but is discussing options for targeting third parties who may be connected to those individuals.
Espinel named three key improvements that would help the IPEC to crack down on fakes: 1) increased penalties in areas such as economic espionage, risks to health and state and sales to military; 2) ensuring laws keep pace with technology, such as in the area of illegal streaming; and 3) providing law enforcement with the tools they need, specifically removing restrictions on sharing information with rightsholders, “which make it harder to do their job”.
