22 March 2010
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2nd Annual Global Forum on Innovation, Creativity and Intellectual Property INTERPOL - Working with Business to Combat Transnational Organized Intellectual Property (IP) Crime It is a great pleasure for me to join you here in Mumbai for the 2nd Annual Global Forum on Innovation, Creativity and Intellectual Property. The 1st Annual Forum in Beijing, China in March 2007 was a groundbreaking event in the region. And I am sure this gathering will be an equally important milestone for collective efforts to protect innovation, creativity and intellectual property in India and other countries of the sub-continent. I am going to give you some insight into how INTERPOL supports the international business community and other stakeholders in combating transnational organized criminals who systematically manufacture and distribute counterfeit and pirate products on an industrialised scale. However, I would first like to acknowledge the work of the United States Chamber of Commerce. Thomas J. Donohue, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, has demonstrated great leadership on issues affecting business both nationally and internationally. From an international policing perspective, the support provided by Tom and his colleagues for INTERPOL, especially the INTERPOL Intellectual Property Rights Programme, has been outstanding. The US Chamber and INTERPOL have a shared vision about INTERPOL’s role in law enforcement efforts to combat transnational organized IP crime in partnership with business. We hear a great deal these days about the need for international organizations and other influential stakeholders to contribute to capacity-building in less developed countries. However, there is a tendency to overlook the fact that international organizations themselves need to develop the expertise and capacity to deliver these services to those who need them most. The US Chamber has been a good supporter and partner to INTERPOL. It recognises INTERPOL’s unique capacity to make a difference in global anti-IP crime efforts by providing police in its 186 member countries with a wide range of operational services and support. Apart from investing in the Programme and providing resources, the Chamber has also worked tirelessly at the political level to persuade policy-makers about the value of INTERPOL in this specialised field. David, please pass on my sincere thanks to Tom and all of your colleagues for their invaluable contribution to international IP crime-fighting efforts. Over the last few years global awareness about the nature and extent of counterfeiting and piracy has grown. While piracy and counterfeiting remains a significant challenge for law enforcement and the business community worldwide – with an estimated 200 billion US dollars’ worth of counterfeited and pirated products traded internationally just in 2005 – the robust partnerships between public and private-sector organizations including the US Chamber and other stakeholders has made an impact. However, the strength of any partnership is the sum of its parts. Every stakeholder needs to ensure strategic intention translates into concrete action. INTERPOL’s fundamental role is to provide guidance and support to the international police community in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. INTERPOL does this by facilitating and coordinating collective action to help police in our member countries curb the activities of transnational organized criminals who derive significant profits from these often life-threatening crimes, drawing upon our I-24/7 global police communications system, broad range of police databases, criminal analysis unit and other tools and services. INTERPOL also aims to be a catalyst for action. The last year has seen several major regional law enforcement IP crime interventions concluded by police in member countries in partnership with the private sector and INTERPOL. In June 2007, the coordinated efforts of police and customs authorities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay led to hundreds of arrests and the seizure of counterfeit and pirated goods valued at over 35 million US dollars. Another operation commenced in October 2007 in the same five countries with additional support from Bolivian authorities. Indications suggest seizures will exceed 55 million US dollars when the operation is concluded next month. In terms of capacity-building in the region, we saw that the experience customs and police agencies gained from previous operations contributed to the increase in the level of seizures during this operation, and also resulted in better communication, cooperation and coordination. Operations in Southeast Asia carried out by police in China and Myanmar with support from INTERPOL led to the well-publicised neutralisation of a criminal conspiracy responsible for the industrialised manufacture and distribution of counterfeit anti-malarial medicines throughout the Greater Mekong sub-region. The medical and scientific community has noted INTERPOL’s leadership and support in this collective criminal investigation. Only last week the well-respected US Public Library of Science published an academic paper which concluded that, “The collaboration between police, public health workers and scientists on combating fake artesunate is unique, and provides a model for others to follow.” All parties involved contributed to the investigation’s success, but it is widely accepted that INTERPOL’s role as a bridge between the health sector (including the World Health Organization and physicians and scientists) and national police agencies was crucial. Without INTERPOL’s intervention and leadership the transnational organized criminals involved would almost certainly still be committing their unconscionable crimes. Less well-known is Operation Storm, which aims to maximise the intelligence dividend from the success in Southeast Asia. Storm is a ground-breaking operation in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam targeting distribution networks for counterfeit medical products in the context of the World Health Organization - International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (IMPACT). It is the first time that national police, customs, public health authorities, drug regulatory bodies, health charities and international organizations including INTERPOL and WHO have come together for such an ambitious undertaking. Operation Storm is complicated, and it will be some time before the results are known. However, it is unequivocal evidence of the determination of INTERPOL and WHO to work together to target immoral transnational organized criminals whose greed inflicts great suffering on innocent people with life-threatening but often curable diseases. All forms of counterfeiting and piracy are serious crimes, particularly when produced and distributed on an industrialised scale by transnational organized criminals. However, medical product counterfeiting, in my mind, is the cruelest of all. INTERPOL is determined to help end this scourge by intervening in the flow of life-threatening counterfeit medicines from Southeast Asia and the Indian sub-continent into Africa, including not just those drugs which purport to cure or offset the symptoms of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, but others which can be equally fatal for the consumer. Over the last six months INTERPOL has steadily increased its resource commitment to the World Health Organization’s IMPACT program. INTERPOL is serious about uniting law enforcement and public health to help police intervene in transnational medical counterfeiting and maximise opportunities to consistently deliver the successes we have seen in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. To achieve this, the relationship between INTERPOL and the World Health Organization must be further reinforced. I recently announced that an officer from the INTERPOL IP Crime Unit will be seconded full-time to the IMPACT programme for the mutual benefit of both organizations and, more importantly, for all stakeholders, not least the innocent victims of these ruthless criminals. The secondment will commence within the next month. Despite the emphasis on counterfeit medicines, the INTERPOL IPR Programme is broad-based and designed to assist all businesses affected by counterfeiting and piracy. INTERPOL played a key coordination role between police and the private sector to facilitate simultaneous police interventions in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to close down the OiNK Web site, which was one of the world’s largest sources of pre-release music. This capability will be enhanced in 2008 to provide greater support to private-sector stakeholders for fighting criminals who systematically use the Internet to infringe copyrights. INTERPOL-initiated discussions have already taken place with the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Entertainment Software Association (ESA), International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) on working together to build dedicated Internet anti-piracy capabilities within the INTERPOL IP Crime Unit. In the near future, I expect to see these partnerships produce more regional and global operational successes. Another important development was the introduction of a complementary two-tier INTERPOL IP crime training programme. First, in partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, INTERPOL held the 2007 International Law Enforcement IP Crime Conference in Canada in June, where a practical three-day training agenda was delivered to over 400 participants from 48 countries. The 2008 International Law Enforcement IP Crime Conference following the same approach will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia from June 24 to 26. Thereafter, the training package will be deployed in other INTERPOL regions. The second training initiative was introduced in November 2007. The IP Crime Training Course co-hosted by the Italian Guardia di Finanza and INTERPOL was aimed at police middle managers with responsibility for investigating IP crime. Twenty-seven participants from 15 countries were trained to better lead the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. In 2008, three other courses are scheduled in Europe and South America, with the aim of training more than 100 middle managers. These training initiatives were possible because of the generous support of the United States Chamber of Commerce. I want to spend my remaining time describing the most important outcome of the Chamber’s support. The year 2007 saw the creation of the INTERPOL Database on International Intellectual Property (DIIP) Crime. The database is intended to fill the information void identified by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). With the exception of customs counterfeit and pirate seizure data collated by the World Customs Organization and the European Commission, there is an absence of reliable data to illustrate the true regional and global scope of the problem. However, typically, multinational companies affected by counterfeiting and piracy collect a significant amount of data and evidence to support civil actions against those who infringe intellectual property rights. Thereafter, that expensive resource is often redundant and not put to work for either the benefit of the industry concerned or other industries that are systematically targeted by the same transnational organized criminals. The Chamber and a number of forward-thinking business entities, including a leading multinational skincare company, a multinational tobacco company and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), have already contributed relevant test data to the database, and the information we have received to date demonstrates the database’s immense potential. For example, 1,710 entities, including company or individual names provided by industry, were compared against police records in the INTERPOL Criminal Information System. The searches revealed that the individuals involved in counterfeiting and piracy were known to police for a variety of other serious offences, including credit card and currency counterfeiting, fraud, money laundering, theft, violent crimes and trafficking in human beings, weapons and drugs. This shows that counterfeit and pirate goods are just one illicit commodity manipulated by transnational organized criminals to generate vast profits. A constant theme of my address today has been the involvement of transnational organized criminals in counterfeiting and piracy. To date, 52 INTERPOL member countries from throughout the world have reported 243 international counterfeiting and piracy cases of varying complexity to INTERPOL. These cases cover almost every commodity imaginable: CDs and DVDs, chemicals, cigarettes, shoes and clothing, children’s toys, computer hardware and software, electrical goods and electronics, fabrics and textiles, medicines and medical products including counterfeit body-building products, and vehicle parts. Many of these product types would have posed serious threats to public health and safety if they had not been seized. As I speak there are 33 international wanted persons notices, known as INTERPOL Red Notices, for transnational organized IP criminals sought for counterfeiting and piracy charges, seven of which relate to counterfeit pharmaceuticals. All of these examples underscore the urgent need to ensure our scarce collective resources are deployed where they will be the most effective if we are to make meaningful progress in police-led partnership interventions to counter these criminal activities. For this to happen we need every industry affected by counterfeiting and piracy to share information with INTERPOL. Relying on a few forward-thinking industry entities is not enough. For the database to achieve its maximum potential and deliver results, we need critical momentum. That means the receipt of significant amounts of relevant and timely information from the private sector about those criminals – the identities of whom they already know – who systematically attack their commercial interests, for the welfare of all industrial sectors. If the private sector as a whole is serious about reducing the impact of counterfeiting and piracy, it is no longer acceptable to invoke misguided data-protection arguments for not sharing information. In many jurisdictions, it is perfectly legal to disclose data to the police to prevent or detect crime. All that is required is the determination and collective willingness to do so for the common good. INTERPOL takes seriously industry concerns about the safe handling of their information, and this is an integral part of the process. Consequently the INTERPOL Database on International Intellectual Property (DIIP) Crime is a stand-alone, secure system with information-handling protocols to protect the confidentiality and proprietary interests of private-sector information. The database is part of our holistic approach to combating transnational organized IP crime, and support for it is necessary at all levels. On 19 February 2008, the database was presented at the G8 Intellectual Property Experts Group meeting in Tokyo, Japan as an example of best practice for all industries to adopt. It was accompanied by the INTERPOL Recommended Minimum Global Standard for the Collection of Information on Counterfeiting and Piracy by the Private Sector. The purpose of the Recommended Minimum Global Standard is to provide private sector entities affected by IP crime with guidance on the type of information they should consider collecting about transnational and organized IP crime attacks on their interests. If private sector entities adopt this standard, it will enable the information to be easily incorporated into the database in accordance with the organization’s Data Handling and Referral Procedures. Adopting the Minimum Global Standard will also enable private-sector entities to exchange information about transnational and organized IP crime more effectively. If G8 leaders support this major INTERPOL initiative, this would send a strong message to opinion-shapers and policy-makers that sharing information is the key to making a meaningful impact in the fight against transnational organized counterfeiting and piracy. The last tangible result of the support we have received from the Chamber is that the number of INTERPOL staff assigned to IP crime has increased to five officers, giving us the capacity to provide a higher level of support to police, our private-sector partners and other stakeholders. We hope to enhance this as additional resources become available. In conclusion, I have attempted to illustrate how INTERPOL has steadily expanded its efforts and resource commitment to combating counterfeiting and piracy over the last 12 months. This investment has produced tangible results, but there is still an urgent need for all of us to do more. INTERPOL will continue to develop initiatives and programmes in those areas where it can have a positive influence. I ask everybody here to also identify how we can individually and collectively take action to achieve even greater victories. Thank you.
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