Domain Name Seizures Grow in Customs Fight Against Counterfeit Goods

An annual effort to stop websites from illegally selling counterfeit products continues to grow, said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement announcement. Along with law enforcement agencies in 27 countries, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit shut down 37,479 websites that sold counterfeit merchandise online, up from the 29,684 seized domain names last year, the agency said Monday. The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, a U.S. interagency collaboration led by HSI, joined with Europol and Interpol for the operation, called In-Our-Sites VI. "Over the past year, and leading up to Cyber Monday, the IPR Center and its partners used both criminal and civil actions to successfully seize domain names," said ICE. This was the sixth year the anti-counterfeiting website operation.