Peru analyses sanctioning IP offenses as organized crime

By Espinosa Bellido Abogados

The Peruvian Congress will study a bill that looks to improve the capacities of criminal justice officers and allow smuggling and piracy to be judged as organized crime offenses.

According to Ana María Choquehuanca, who presented the bill to Congress, most of the product smuggling enters through the Southern cities of Puno and Tacna, which border with Chile and is controlled by criminal family organizations that operate in the region. “It is necessary to apply intellectual property crimes the same judicial legislations and sanctions imposed on organized crime offenses”, Choquehuanca said to Agencia Andina.

Peru remains on the Watch List in 2019 Special 301 Report of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the result of an annual review of the state of IP protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world. The report encourages Peru “to increase the number of prosecutions against counterfeiting and piracy, enhance its border enforcement measures, resolve jurisdictional issues over counterfeit medicines and specialized IP prosecutors, and continue to build the technical IP-related capacity of its agencies, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and judges”.