Why it is important you take action
It is vital that you and your business understand the value of Intellectual Property (IP) and take action to prevent the IP rights of others being infringed. There are steps you and your staff can take to prevent infringement:
- Prevent: Introduce policies, procedures and processes to tackle the issue to help ensure that your business - and your staff - comply with the law. Ensure licences are present and correct in relation to the use of other people's IP in your business.
- Educate: Increase your staff’s knowledge of IP and their understanding of what can and cannot be done in the business so they can avoid IP rights infringement. Create an office culture that respects IP and that staff can buy into.
- Check: Audit IP used in your business regularly to ensure compliance. In relation to IT, there are a number of automated tools to assist in auditing.
Failure to protect yourself, your staff and your business may leave you all vulnerable to action for civil infringement, and possibly criminal offences. This may result in civil law damages, criminal fines and/or damage to your reputation and can adversely impact on your resources and productivity. Exposure to computer viruses, identity theft - and system attacks are also a threat - along with placing information at risk and slowing networks.
How much of a problem is this?
Research commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office's IP Crime Group found:
- a third of businesses surveyed were not aware whether goods sold on their premises by external traders were legitimate or not;
- out of those who knew that employees were selling DVDs at work, nearly a fifth knew that these were counterfeit and still allowed such illegal activity to take place. Similarly, over a quarter of respondents did not make staff aware that they must not download illegal content at work;
- nearly a third of those who said they would not prevent employees/colleagues from buying counterfeit goods at work took no action because they said it was not their responsibility to do so.
It is important that you and your business review office processes and procedures and consider how to handle these issues, including educating staff and managers on IP compliance.
Practical advice, guidance and tools are available to help businesses tackle IP rights infringement within their workplace. They explain the law, risks that IP rights infringement poses, potential problem areas, and actions a business can take to deal with IP rights infringement.