Recently, the US Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act of 2008 (S. 2235) which would create an Intellectual Property enforcement "czar" within the administration to work with the appropriate US government agencies to develop a joint strategy to fight product piracy and IP theft.

Illegally imported products cost American businesses $200 billion to $250 billion annually and are directly responsible for the loss of 750,000 American jobs, according to the US Customs & Border Protection.

The IP Act should give the US government more power to track down and prosecute product counterfeiters and provide the US Justice Department with additional funds to address the issue of product piracy and work more closely with state and local law enforcement.

The European Union is also taking strong action to crack down on IP theft and product piracy. It has approved a plan that would focus on measures "aimed at facilitating stakeholder dialogue and voluntary inter-industry agreements to tackle the most imminent problems, improve coordination between member states, and help to build key partnerships between enforcers and industry to develop information sharing and analysis," according to the Commission press statement.

In 2006, EU customs officials are reported to have intercepted more than 128 million counterfeited and pirated articles, involving 37,334 cases in 2006, a jump of 70% compared to 2005.

According to figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the value of pirated products exceeds the individual gross domestic product of about 150 economies in the world, including 24 of the EU member states.

Story filed 20.10.08