What intellectual property misappropriation constitutes a crime?
Although civil remedies that may provide compensation to wronged intellectual property rights holders are available, criminal sanctions are often warranted to ensure sufficient punishment and deterrence of wrongful activity. Indeed, because violations of intellectual property rights often involve no loss of tangible assets and, for infringement crimes, do not even require any direct contact with the rights holder, the rights holder often does not know it is a victim until a defendant’s activities are specifically identified and investigated. Congress has continually expanded and strengthened criminal laws for violations of intellectual property rights specifically to ensure that those violations are not merely a cost of doing business for defendants. Among the most significant provisions are the following: • The counterfeit trademark crime is set out at 18 U.S.C. § 2320 ; • Criminal infringement of copyrighted works is set out at 17 U.S.C. § 506(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319 ; • The counterf
