NCJ Number
178091
Journal
American Criminal Law Review Volume: 36 Issue: 3 Dated: Summer 1999 Pages: 835-879
Date Published
1999
Length
45 pages
Annotation
This article examines several areas of intellectual property law under which criminal prosecutions are brought; these areas include the theft of trade secrets, trademark counterfeiting, copyright infringement, problems raised by online servers, patent issues, and art crimes.
Abstract
The Economic Espionage Act deals directly with the theft of intangible trade secrets. Prior to its enactment, Federal prosecutors used laws such as the National Stolen Property Act, the Trade Secrets Act, the Mail and Wire Fraud statutes, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to penalize the misappropriation of trade secrets. Laws covering trademark counterfeiting include the Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and the Money Laundering Act. The Copyright Act and some of the other laws have been used to address copyright infringement. Pending legislation will extend copyright protection to computer databases and other collections of information. Various laws also apply to the other forms of intellectual property crimes. Several provisions of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are applicable to the theft of intellectual property. Footnotes