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ARTICLE · 11 APRIL 2012

Piracy And Counterfeiting Move To The Front Burner

Venable LLP
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The early weeks of 2012 may go down in history as the great awakening to piracy and counterfeiting issues.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Jeffrey Knowles
Jeffrey Knowles
Christopher Crook
Christopher Crook

The early weeks of 2012 may go down in history as the great awakening to piracy and counterfeiting issues. However, the issues created by pirates and counterfeiters were not the topic du jour. Instead, the public and media focused on the issues created by those trying to stop counterfeiting. The progress of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protecting Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) through Congress sparked mass protests, with Google blacking out its logo on January 18, while thousands of other websites went "black" for 24 hours in protest. The next day, the Department of Justice and its counterparts in 22 countries coordinated raids to shut down filesharing site Megaupload.com, taking the site's principals into custody.

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