June 25, 2013
The recently released 2013 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement provides some details on the progress of Operation In Our Sites (OIOS).
The 92 page document (PDF) states since the IPR Center initiated program began in June 2010, US Federal law enforcement agencies; in conjunction with the Department Of Justice, have conducted 13 operations targeting sites selling counterfeit goods. The actions have resulted in the seizure of more than 1,700 domain names of infringing websites and monetary seizures of over $3 million.
However, elsewhere in the document it says 2000 seizures have occurred.
When domains are seized, a banner notifies visitors of the seizure by Federal authorities and provides information about the crime of trafficking in counterfeit goods. The report states the seizure banner has been displayed over 110 million times on various web sites scooped up under OIOS.
It seems not all the offenders get the message when a domain is seized. The document states a collection of domain names seized in two investigations were new versions of domain names scooped up in an early iteration of OIOS in November 2010 - and used by the same perpetrators. Those two investigations seized over $2.4 million in proceeds from the distribution of counterfeit sports apparel and jerseys.
The Plan also expresses some concerns about the upcoming flood of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLD's) relating to the potential for intellectual property and counterfeiting operations to run rife on the new extensions; but plans are already in place with regard to this states the report:
"The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the FBI will work with ICANN, in collaboration with stakeholders, so that new top-level domains do not become new venues for infringement."
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