Since November 2017, all filings for criminal investigation regarding IPR crime in Denmark have on a trial basis been referred to a special IPR taskforce at the office of the Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime, also known as SØIK.
This trial arrangement has now been made permanent.
This means that criminal cases regarding counterfeit products now are handled by specialists in the IPR taskforce, and not by the local police in each police district. It should increase the possibility to make joint actions together with other countries’ national IPR taskforces and get a clearer picture of IPR crimes on a national basis, amongst other things.
In our opinion, the idea of having a specialised IPR taskforce is good especially if this means strengthening the focus on the fight against IPR crime with specialist investigators and prosecutors. However, it is a very slow process and the success will highly depend on further resources to speed up the process.