PM’S ‘Interlectual Property Adviser’ chairs piracy seminar at international IP summit last week

Mike Weatherley, is the Intellectual Property Adviser to the Prime Minister and Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade.

He chaired a special session at the International IP Enforcement Summit in London last week on tackling the finance which fuels online piracy.

The International IP Enforcement Summit, the first of its kind, was hosted jointly by the Intellectual Property Office, the European Commission and the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market.

The summit brought together key European and international decision-makers, enforcement agencies, multinational companies and other stakeholders to discuss the growing impact of intellectual property right infringements as well as the challenges facing enforcement.

Mike’s session on ‘Challenging Misuse’ focused on addressing the finance which fuels websites which host illegal material. Fellow panellists included representatives from Visa, the BPI, the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

In his capacity as the Intellectual Property Adviser to the Prime Minister, he recently published a report on Search Engines and Piracy.

To view the report, CLICK HERE:

Mike said: “IP crime is a global issue, so an international IP enforcement summit is a great way to bring together key players from different countries. The discussion on strangling finance for websites that host illegal material was really productive and a joint approach with both advertisers and payment providers is clearly the way forward.”