Current trends of the world trade of counterfeited and pirated goods show an exponential curve, posing an ever-bigger threat to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) owners and costumers.
According to the European Commission, the value of seizures of illegal products in the EU across 2010 amounted more than 1.1 billion Euros.
However, considering that the value of seizures is just a small part of this trade and that most of the initiatives aimed at fighting this type of criminality rest on the side of the IPR owners, it’s both surprising and disappointing that not enough research has been carried out on this subject.
I am a Master’s student studying at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Criminal Justice Studies. At present, I’m conducting a study on intellectual property crimes (which is being supervised by Dr Mark Button) in order to understand how this problem is addressed in the UK and to improve the response against such criminality on a worldwide basis (and notably in Brazil, my home country).
Therefore, I’m asking those professionals whose activities are related to the protection of IPR for private organisations to contribute to this debate by answering a short questionnaire which may add new insights on this subject.
Evaluation of technologies and tactics
The objective of this research project is to evaluate technologies, tactics and the ethical and legal aspects adopted by private security professionals in the United Kingdom to tackle the threat to their organisations’ assets.
It will take you around 15 minutes to complete this questionnaire. It would be greatly appreciated if you could fill it out and return it by 20 August.
The web link at the foot of this page will re-direct you to the questionnaire which is hosted by Survey Monkey, a provider of web-based survey solutions.
By filling in this questionnaire, security and loss prevention managers, investigators and other practitioners will be helping in the research of better forms of tackling a crime that accounts for substantial financial losses for Intellectual Property Rights owners, not to mention the injury or death of innocent people worldwide.
In addition, their contribution will lead to safer and more efficient ways for these professionals to do their work.
Alexandre Carmo is a student on the MSc course in Security Management at the University of Portsmouth (e-mail: [email protected])
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