Grants to Combat Intellectual Property Crimes

The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP) announced that in fiscal year 2010 nearly $4 million was awarded to enable state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to address education, deterrence, enforcement and evidence gathering for prosecution of intellectual property crime in coordination with federal efforts. Over $2 million in discretionary awards were made to 13 state and local jurisdictions.

The funding to the 13 state and local jurisdictions provides support for:

• Enforcing criminal intellectual property laws, including the reimbursement of expenses incurred in performing criminal enforcement operations, such as overtime payments and storage fees for seized evidence.
• Educating the public to prevent, deter, and identify criminal violations of intellectual property laws.
• Establishing task forces to include state, local law, or tribal enforcement entities, or both, exclusively to conduct investigations and forensic analyses of evidence and prosecutions in matters involving criminal intellectual property laws.
• Assisting state, local, and tribal law enforcement officers and prosecutors in acquiring computer and other equipment to conduct investigations and forensic analyses of evidence in matters involving criminal intellectual property laws.