40 years of IACC

Fighting against counterfeiting and piracy

The International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) is a non-profit organization located in Washington DC (USA) devoted to the fight against product counterfeiting and piracy. The organization, founded in 1979, is the longest-standing in this field and although it began with a handful of companies that sought to protect intellectual property it has grown to a membership base of over 250. The multidisciplinary view of the IACC is due to its member-driven working and the assorted origin of them: from automotive to luxury fashion, pharmaceutical products, food, software and entertainment. In addition, its member portfolio includes law firms, investigative and product security firms, government agencies and intellectual property associations who are committed to fight counterfeiting and piracy.

The touchstone of the IACC is to combat counterfeiting and piracy by promoting laws, regulations and directives designed to render the theft of intellectual property undesirable and unprofitable. A critical factor to accomplish this task is that the organization is certain of the negative effects that the counterfeiting has, it creates severe public health and safety hazards as well as economic harms. The IACC supports and initiates programmes in cooperation with the government and the private sector with the aim of increasing the enforcement, sending to trial intellectual property infringers and creating a strong deterrent for counterfeiters and pirates.

In an effort to ensure that the intellectual property rights of its members are safe from illegal copying, infringement and other forms of theft, the IACC engages in substantive dialogue with governments, rights-holders, and partners from a variety of industries and sectors around the world. The IACC develops and conducts training for national and foreign law enforcement officials, submits comments on intellectual property enforcement laws and regulations in the United States and abroad, and participates in regional an international programmes aimed at improving intellectual property enforcement standards.

If you are interested in learning more about the fight against counterfeiting, you can accompany the SPTO representative and attend the Europol Intellectual Property Crime Conference, co-organized by the Spanish National Police and the IACC, that will take place in June in Málaga. Besides, you can read more about the work that the IACC does in various fields like the fight against counterfeiting on the Internet through RogueBlock and IACC MarketSafe, its cooperation with the National Police bodies of the USA, Latin-America and other countries, and its initiatives to raise public awareness at the organization website www.iacc.org.