Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit

Part of PIPCU's remit[2] is to protect consumers from harm, focusing on intellectual property crime that has public safety implications.

The operationally-independent unit was launched in September 2013[4] with funding from the UK government's Intellectual Property Office.

In 2013, Operation Ashiko was created to targets the sale of online physical counterfeit goods and aims to seize the domains of infringers.

[8] In April 2017, PIPCU launched the IP Crime Directory,[9] a database for customs and police officers to help them identify counterfeit goods with the information uploaded by rights and brand holders.

By August 2015 the immunicity domain was back under the control of anti-censorship activists and displays a website inviting people to use Tor and other anonymity services.

Working with the media and advertiser industry body, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) created a technology portal called 'Project Sunblock'.

From June 2014 this technology allowed replacing the adverts of websites believed to be offering unauthorized content with warnings from PIPCU.