By: Lesly Saravia

Piracy/ Intellectual Property Theft Intellectual property theft is when someone steals people of their ideas, inventions, and creative expressions. This includes things from trading secrets, proprietary products, and parts to movies, music, and software.

How does this affect society? This white collar crime costs the U.S businesses billions of dollars a year and it robs the nation of jobs and loss of revenue taxes.

What is being done to prevent the crime? The FBI’s criminal investigative program’s main priority is to prevent intellectual property theft. They focus on the theft of trade secrets and infringements on products that can impact a consumer’s well-being and safety.

Famous Case: S. Victor v. Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. Mike Tyson’s tattoo artist, S. Victor Whitmill, filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. for copyright infringement. In the movie, Hangover Part II, Warner Bros used Mike Tyson’s tattoo design on actor Ed Helms. On June 17, 2011, they both made an agreement of undisclosed terms, according to the Smithsonian website.

Citations http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ten-famous-intellectual-property-disputes-18521880/?no-ist=&page1 https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/ipr