By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — As part of its ongoing battle against intellectual property crimes domestically and internationally, the Justice Department on Monday announced the appointment of 15 new assistant U.S. Attorneys and 20 FBI agents to address the problem that includes theft of trademarks, copyrights and industrial secrets.
The Justice Department said the new federal prosecutor positions will be part of the department’s Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property program.
“Intellectual property law enforcement is central to protecting our nation’s ability to remain at the forefront of technological advancement, business development and job creation,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grindler said in a statement. “The department, along with its federal partners throughout the Administration, will remain ever vigilant in this pursuit as American entrepreneurs and businesses continue to develop, innovate and create.”
The Justice Department said the 15 new assistant U.S. Attorneys will be located in California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
The 20 FBI agents will be “deployed to specifically augment four geographic areas with intellectual property squads, and increase investigative capacity in other locations around the country,” the Justice Department said. The four squads will be located in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and the District of Columbia.
The 20 new agents will augment the compliment of 31 agents working intellectual property crimes around the country.
“Theft of intellectual property – from inventions to trademarks and copyrights, to industrial designs and trade secrets – is a worldwide problem,” Gordon Snow, the new assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division said in a statement.
