Almost nine million forged objects confiscated during 2011

In 2011, the Spanish police force carried out 2,348 operations and arrested or charged 2,101 people for crimes against Industrial and Intellectual Property. 8.79 million objects valued at over 694 million euros were confiscated.

67.9% of the operations were related to Industrial Property and 32.1% to Intellectual Property. The data refer exclusively to goods confiscated and not to the damages caused by the Internet use of Intellectual Property rights without authorisation from the right-holders. The total value of the goods confiscated increased by over 50% in one year (694 million euros in 2011 as opposed to 461 million in 2010). By region, Andalusia and Madrid were the scene of the largest numbers of operations.

By sector, most operations were in the field of CDs, DVDs and similar (28.1% of the total), electronics and machinery (21.3%) and toys (7.8%). In comparison with the previous year, there was a drop in the textiles and leather goods sectors, with toys remaining in the third position and thus incurring a serious risk for health and safety.

The fight against Industrial and Intellectual Property crime

The report on the illegal distribution of goods draws the following conclusions:

• Crimes and offences dropped by 31.1% with respect to the previous year and arrests and charges by 40.2%.
• Confiscated goods dropped by 9.5% although their value increased by 50.5%.
• The regions of Spain where most crimes were committed continued to be Andalusia and Madrid, with Catalonia in the third position.

According to police experts, the drop in the results relating to Intellectual Property can be explained by two factors. Firstly, technological development has led to a change in the tastes of consumers, who now prefer to use the Internet rather than physical media (CDs and DVDs). Secondly, police pressure over recent years on this type of crime and on hawking has led to a visible decrease in such activities.

All these violations of Intellectual Property rights in the physical and digital areas in Spain result in extensive losses and a consequent destruction of jobs and wealth in the cultural sector, which generates about 4% of the Spanish Gross Domestic Product.

The unfair competition generated by this illegal traffic in content not only hinders the development of new business models but also affects key agents in the world of cultural industries, making it more difficult to produce and create musical, audiovisual, literary or multimedia works, and damaging the right to communicate or freely receive new creations.

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