What is counterfeiting and piracy?

Counterfeiting generally relates to wilful trade mark infringement, while piracy generally relates to wilful copyright infringement.

Examples of counterfeiting could be:

• fake replica football shirts
• trainers
• clothing and so on

Examples of piracy could be:

• fake Digital Versatile Discs (DVD's)
• fake Compact Discs (CD's)
• unauthorised downloading of music from the internet and so on.

There is a fine line between counterfeiting and piracy and it’s not uncommon for the two to overlap.

Intellectual property (IP) provides protection for people's inventions and creations and has four main areas: patents, trade marks, copyright (and related rights), and designs. Unauthorised use of someone's IP can be classed as IP crime and may lead to prosecution.

IP crime has a serious economic threat in the United Kingdom (UK), and is considered a serious threat to safety of consumers. No product is too cheap to copy, and no product immune. It is estimated that IP crime costs the UK economy around GBP £9 billion each year and it is growing considerably.

Reporting IP crime

Information on how to report IP crime.

Guide to offences

Table showing various IP offences