Using Private Prosecutions To Tackle Counterfeit Drugs

As rights holders, the protection of your brand and IP are of paramount importance.

Individuals and organised crime groups that would target your work doubtless weigh up the prospects of success against the chances of being detected and, thereafter, the consequences that will befall them if they do get caught.

They will be aware of the much-publicised reduction in policing and prosecutorial budgets, and likely will assume that the risk of prosecution - and therefore of imprisonment, and a confiscation order - is one they can live with. But such a calculation fails to take into account the possibility that the victim company may instead elect to bring its own criminal case via a private prosecution.

However, there are one or two misconceptions surrounding the use of a private prosecution as part of your litigation strategy to combat serious criminality aimed at your company which should be dispelled.

You do not have to wait for the police to make a decision whether or not to investigate It is open to the victim to seek to commence criminal proceedings as soon as practicable after having been alerted to the offending involved. By bringing a private prosecution, you have the ability to drive forward criminal cases in a way that would not otherwise be available and can improve the likelihood of capturing the best evidence and causing maximum disruption. At the same time, however, you have not exhausted all of your options, and it remains open to you, at a later stage, to request that the Crown Prosecution Service exercise its statutory discretion to intervene and continue proceedings that you have commenced.

You do not have to bring the proceedings in your own name We understand that, for some clients, there is a conflict between wanting to take a hard line whilst at the same time not wanting to do so in such a public fashion. For that reason, we are building effective relationships with professional organisations that...