Drastic drop in intellectual property cases in last 5 yrs

Chennai: The number of cases registered by the Tamil Nadu Intellectual Property Right Enforcement Cell (IPRF) has drastically dropped in the last five years, since 2017.

At present, the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) - Crime, Chennai is the head of the IPRF. The service of this cell is also being utilised to check the violations related to the Copy Right Act and Information Technology Act. The cell is functioning in 12 districts.

The policy note of Tamil Development and Information Department, which was tabled by the Minister of Information and Publicity MP Saminathan, said, “in 2017, the number of cases registered by IPRF was 5,589 and 5,591 persons were arrested. In 2018, the number of cases decreased to 3,102 and 3,074 were held. Likewise, in 2019 the cases further went down to 762 and 710 who indulged in offences were held.”

The minister pointed out that in 2020 only 292 cases were registered by IPRF and the authorities have arrested 297 persons while in 2021, the cases further dipped to 151 and a total of 151 persons were arrested. “In 2022, till March 31, only three cases were booked and the same number of persons were held,” he added.

On the illegal telecasting of new Tamil movies, the minister said based on the complaints of the film producers and authorised copyright owners, special raids were conducted across the State and stringent actions were taken against the violators and pirates, who were involved in the offence. “Accordingly, a total of 148 cases were registered on violation of Copyright Act by IPRF cell and the value of the property seized was about Rs 69 lakh”.

Saminathan said to impart more technical knowledge to the unit officers for effective enforcement, special training courses involving experts will be conducted for all the authorities concerned in IPRF.