PIPCU appoints new chief

The UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has appointed detective chief inspector Teresa Russell as the new head of the unit.

Russell joins PIPCU with 25 years of policing experience. She previously served in the fraud squad, where she formed Operation Broadway, a disruption and awareness initiative tackling “boiler room” frauds.

The announcement, made yesterday, April 26, comes exactly one year after PIPCU supported the launch of the IP Crime Directory.

“The directory is designed to boost the ability of law enforcement, both in the UK and internationally, to work directly with owners of intellectual property to identify, tackle and disrupt IP crime,” said PIPCU.

One of PIPCU’s earliest achievements was the launch of ‘Operation Creative’, a scheme designed to disrupt websites providing unauthorised access to copyright-protected material.

As part of the scheme, the ‘Infringing Websites List’ was created to provide details of illicit sites so that brands can remove their adverts from them.

In August last year, TBO reported that PIPCU had secured another round of government funding that would keep it running for at least two more years. The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) agreed to provide £3.3 million ($4.2 million).

Russell said: “I look forward to working with our partners to map and build the intelligence picture that enables us to take action on our most serious offenders, our organised crime group (OCGs).  You may well hold that missing piece of the OCG jigsaw that we need.”

The announcement was made on the same day as World IP Day, April 26.

Ros Lynch, director of copyright and enforcement at the IPO, added: “I’m delighted to celebrate World IP Day and the theme of women in innovation. It’s a suitable day to welcome Russell to PIPCU.”