Domain Name Seizures Grow in ICE Fight Against Counterfeit Goods
An annual effort to stop websites from illegally selling counterfeit products continues to grow, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Dec. 2 release. Along with 24 law enforcement agencies across 18 countries, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) shut down…
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29,684 domain names that sold counterfeit merchandise online, the agency said. The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, a U.S. interagency collaboration led by HSI, "partnered with Europol who, through its member countries, seized top-level domains" as part of the operation, called Project Transatlantic/Operation In-Our-Sites V, said ICE. "During this past year and leading up to Cyber Monday, the National IPR Center and its partners used both criminal and civil actions to successfully shutdown websites selling counterfeit goods, significantly bolstering the overall impact of this year’s efforts," ICE said. Last year, ICE and 10 other agencies seized 706 domain names as part of the same effort (see 1312030079). This was this fifth year that ICE has led the anti-counterfeiting website operation.