In the UK, Counterfeiters May Face up to 10 Years in Jail

According to The Guardian, the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has announced that stealing registered designs and offering counterfeit products for profit will become a criminal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The Queen’s speech confirmed the measure which will offer the designers of cars, smartphones, furniture, computers and other manufactured items the same level of protection. This protection prohibits the distribution of pirated DVDs and films.

The new sanctions will cover only the deliberate copying, importing or marketing of designs that have been officially registered with either UK or EU authorities. This kind of privileged, registered status usually lasts for 25 years.

The IPO report describes the decree as “a significant deterrent effect against deliberate copying that current civil sanctions do not supply”. Now firms have to pursue a civil action against those who have infringed their patent rights.

Those found guilty of pirating copyrighted DVDs and films for profits face up to 10 years in jail. A similar maximum sentence level will apply to those deliberately infringing design patents.

A spokesperson for the IPO said: “A criminal offense for registered design theft is intended to create a coherent approach to the protection of designs, trade marks and copyright in the UK, reduce the scale of registered design infringement by acting as a deterrent and better punish perpetrators of blatant design infringement.”