The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) is a department of the City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud. It was established in 2013 with the responsibility to investigate and deter serious and organised intellectual property crime in the United Kingdom.
Part of PIPCU’s remit is to protect consumers from harm, focusing on intellectual property crime that has public safety implications.
Since its inception, it has investigated intellectual property crime worth more than £100 million concerning counterfeit goods or digital piracy, and suspended more than 30,000 websites selling counterfeit goods. These websites have also been linked to identity theft.