GREATER emphasis on the leadership role of police and Customs and the benefits of working collaboratively is the focus of the 2010 International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property (IP) Crime Conference which opened in Hong Kong yesterday.

The conference is the first to be held in Asia and brings together some 500 law specialist, IP crime investigators, prosecutors and private sector investigators from 48 countries. Co-hosted by INTERPOL and Hong Kong Customs in partnership with Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), the three-day event (19-21 October) concentrates on collective efforts to work together to break organized crime. It will include a series of operational workshops to enable subject matter experts to discuss how all those affected by counterfeiting and piracy can better work together to break up the organized criminal gangs which manufacture and distribute fake goods on a regional and increasingly global scale.

The Under Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Gregory So, highlighted at the opening ceremony that co-operation among jurisdictions and timely intelligence exchange are pivotal to the fight against transnational organized IP crime.

Hong Kong Customs Commissioner Richard Yuen confirmed that organised IP criminals are using increasingly sophisticated manufacturing and distribution networks to move their pirated goods around through physical boundaries like ports and airports or virtual boundaries on the Internet. “To protect society against the harm of counterfeit goods and support economic growth through promotion of innovation and creativity, IPR enforcement agencies must work together within and outside the national boundaries, so that we can effectively counteract and combat the international IPR criminal syndicates,” said Commissioner Yuen.