We spend a lot of time talking about piracy at CreativeFuture. It’s kind of our thing. But rarely do we get the chance to speak with someone who is on the front lines protecting creatives from those stealing their work.

Jan van Voorn is perhaps the best person to speak to if you want to learn about content protection. He’s Batman – if Batman focused all his energy on stopping IP crimes instead of roaming the streets of Gotham City (our description, not his).

With a background in the military and law enforcement, he’s taking on a new venture as CEO of IP House – which he describes as a “one-stop shop” to provide IP solutions to creatives, brands, and governments all around the world.

JC TAYLOR:

Hi Jan. Since we last spoke, you’ve started a new venture at IP House. How is that new role treating you?

JAN VAN VOORN:

Things are great! We are currently in the process of acquiring additional companies in the enforcement space to bring together a truly global footprint. So, a lot of work goes into identifying the right companies with the expertise and experience that fit the IP House mission to ensure that we deliver on the vision we have for the company.

JC:

Tell me about IP House. What is that mission that you’re trying to accomplish?

JVV:

The vision originated from co-founder Steve Francis, a 25-year law enforcement veteran who most recently was the Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations. Steve recognized that there were no truly global investigation companies, but instead a splintered web of contractors and subcontractors. This made the whole IP referral process painfully slow, inefficient, and less data & intelligence-driven.

As such, when brands or content companies had issues [with IP], they needed to go to several point solutions to bring cases to success. Monitoring would be subcontracted to one vendor, test purchases to another vendor, and investigations to a third vendor. Ultimately, the case may require filing a criminal or civil action in a different jurisdiction from where the investigation started. There was no real organization or collaboration, but instead, single-point solutions with little, if any, data and intel sharing. So, Steve’s vision was to have a one-stop shop that could do all these things under one roof.

We sought out the best companies in the IP industry and said: “This is what we’re building. Do you want to be part of this?” And everybody said yes!

Some of these companies were competitors to each other, with existing clients and contracts. But now, we have brought them together under one roof, or one House, to be even more effective as a collaborative global team.

JC:

Let me let me back up a little bit because I’d like to hear about where you first became interested in IP protection. You’ve been doing this kind of work for a long time now, and I would like to hear more about what got you into this space in the first place.

JVV:

Well, I started my career in the military. After seven years of service, I joined law enforcement in the Netherlands. There, I became acquainted with all types of crime, including IP crime. I then joined the private sector when I was asked to run the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Asia) content protection operations for the Motion Pictures Association (MPA).

When I started, it was really just me and one analyst. We had to build the EMEA team from the ground up. Fortunately, the studios liked what they were seeing, and I was asked to run the MPA’s global content protection team. So, my family moved to Los Angeles, and I took on the role of running global operations.

Fast forward to 2017, when we launched ACE, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, to bring more than 50 members together to join this global fight against digital piracy. I ran ACE for seven years. This whole new adventure with IP House is broader and across the whole IP industry on every kind of IP infringement issue (copyright, trademarks, and patent) you can think of.

JC:

So, let’s say I run a massive IP infringement website, whether it’s piracy, counterfeiting, or whatever.

JC Taylor is the kingpin that that you’ve been tasked with taking down. How do you do it?

JVV:

Well, any kind of case starts with an investigation and research of open and closed data sources to identify intelligence needed to landscape the issues. That’s why it’s important to have a comprehensive database that tracks infringements and the individuals, networks, and intermediaries behind them on a global scale.

We have all this information listed in our intelligence platform, so we can focus on the most popular sites and the operators behind them. In the pharmaceutical space, it’s no different. Our extensive monitoring service allows us to track suspicious trading activities across hundreds of marketplaces, social media, search engines, and the dark web, coupled with expert human analysis to maximize the quality of leads.

You find a trace online. You look at how popular that source is. You check for links to known organized groups or individuals, then investigate further and take it up the chain.

Going back to content, if you are looking at the client’s target (JC Taylor), who may be associated with several popular sites and services, we cross-reference any historic and new intelligence we have on JC Taylor and his illicit activities before deploying boots on the ground. We’ll first go back to the client and say, “This is what we’re seeing; this is what we recommend you should be doing.” We present them with an enforcement plan, and then we take action.

Actions can vary from knocking on someone’s door, bringing civil litigation, bringing criminal action, or anything else we think would be the most effective method of enforcement.

JC:

What is that interaction like if you do knock on someone’s door? What is that conversation like?

It really depends. It can vary from a complete denial to others who are like, “Okay, you got me. I’ll shut it down.” We always encourage targets to seek legal advice and discuss the settlement terms. It really depends on the operator, but I think the element of surprise, dispelling the myth that criminals can hide on the internet, is what drives many of these cases to success.

JC:

Since you have the unique perspective of working with all these different territories, why would you say IP protection is important?

JVV:

Well, I think there’s a whole range of issues.

There are huge risks to consumers. The close association between counterfeit products and consumer health, or piracy sites and malware, places consumers at severe risk. IP crimes also have major economic repercussions. If your or your company’s IP is being sold or infringed on websites that get hundreds of millions of visits around the world, that will be extremely damaging to your business.

Governments care (or should care) about protecting IP because their citizens are being exposed to harmful products, whether physical or digital. Global studies have proven over and over again how damaging IP crimes can be. These bad actors want to make money no matter what, whether selling harmful fake pharmaceuticals or IPTV subscriptions or monetizing malware embedded into fake advertisements. They want to generate views and will do anything they can to make more money.

JC:

At CreativeFuture, we talk a lot about site blocking legislation, which is available in many other countries, including many of our democratic allies. But it’s a tool that’s not available here in the United States. Are there some things, legislatively, that other countries are doing that the US could learn from?

JVV:

Site blocking, if you want to go into that lane specifically, is a very effective tool.

But when you take a few steps back in terms of what is needed to successfully protect IP and reduce and deter IP crime, you need to do it all. You need to develop a proactive approach to the problem, combining awareness, education, and risk management with prioritized enforcement. Essentially, you should take a holistic approach to a global problem rather than a fragmented, short-term strategy.

That said, site blocking is a very effective tool and is available in over 50 countries right now, and it hasn’t broken the internet.

JC:

We saw that over the last decade or so, digital piracy has become supercharged by streaming technology. Now, you can stream a movie, anywhere, instantly. What do you think the next big leap in IP infringement will look like?

JVV:

I think addressing the lack of accountability online and ensuring that internet businesses have proper awareness and a duty of care regarding who their customers are is really important. A requirement to “know your business client” is present in the physical world and should also be a requirement in the digital space.

Technology will always evolve, so it’s difficult to predict what the next thing will be after streaming. When you look back, there was a very centralized approach to piracy in the Napster times. Then it became more decentralized with BitTorrent and others, only for it to return to a more centralized infrastructure with streaming piracy. So, from an enforcement perspective, it’s easier to tackle the streaming ecosystem than these decentralized platforms that involve swarms of uploaders and downloaders.

The biggest challenge we have right now is the difficulty in identifying people who anonymously register and operate an infringing site, use the technical infrastructure of many intermediaries, or use the services of payment processors.

JC:

To me your job sounds a bit like a James Bond film. In this area of law enforcement, when you’re on the hunt looking for a server or a website operator, do you ever feel kind of cool doing it?

JVV:

No. Actually, yes! Absolutely.  

Unfortunately, I’m not as much in-the-action as I used to be, but my IP House team is.

If you look at our global team, which will be close to 1,000 people soon, they’re doing exactly as you have just described. The IP House team is drawn from public service backgrounds, such as those who served in MI5, the New York Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of Justice, Royal Hong Kong Police, and the City of London Police, but also private sector roles, including content and brand protection specialists and undercover operatives. I can deploy in-house surveillance teams in the US, Latin America, or Asia who can all work on the same case and verify the location of any bad actors. And the team gets very creative with that! Sometimes, they will try to deliver a pizza, or if they have something for sale, we might try to buy it. We use all kinds of investigative techniques to get to the bottom of where these operators are.

Long story short is, yeah, it’s cool. Although these days I’m busier with bringing the right companies together and merging payroll and HR systems.

I don’t feel cool anymore, JC.

JC:

Hopefully you get your cool back soon, Jan.

You were in the military in the Netherlands, right? And law enforcement, also in the Netherlands?

JVV:

That’s correct.

JC:

Do you think you bring a unique perspective to this work because of that experience? Does that military and law enforcement culture differ much in the Netherlands from the experience of the people you work with now?

JVV:

I mean, there is no doubt that the military and the police give you a sense of discipline. And yes, working with my IP House colleagues who also served in the military or law enforcement, we’ve all experienced similar things. We often had to work in dangerous situations. We were all scared at times. We saw things you can never unsee.

What I think is different for me right now is when I left the police to go into that IP space almost 18 years ago, there was no IP school. There was no IP certification or training that would actually make you an IP expert. So, that expertise and knowledge really had to come with the experience of doing the job.

Things have changed, and at IP House, we’re committed to lifting the entire profession. An affiliate, CTIPS (Certified Trade and Intellectual Property Specialist) Organization, is building a new certification. The exam specifications are being developed as part of a joint research project with the A-CAPP Center (Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection) at Michigan State University.

CTIPS will also have an exam preparation course where you, as an IP professional, will study a series of topics to build a solid foundation of knowledge and identify any knowledge gaps before taking the exam. You can then apply and obtain the CTIPS certification, which you can add to your resume. This way, companies can hire people that come with a certain benchmark of IP certification and proven expertise. 

JC:

That’s great – and leads another question I have. Where do you see IP House 5 years from now? What’s your hope for it?

Well, we are already delivering on the aspiration to be the global one-stop shop for all IP issues – in only 6 months. I am very proud of the quality and experience of the businesses we have acquired. If we need to deploy a surveillance car in Kenya right now, we can do that. If we need an investigation or have a criminal case taken to a prosecutor in Peru or Chile, we can take care of that. We’re connected in the United States, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. There are still a few geographical gaps we need to fill, and that’s what we want to focus on in the coming months.

We will also establish IP House as a thought leader in intellectual property protection by actively contributing to conferences, publishing insightful research, and participating in key discussions worldwide. Our goal is to shape the future of IP protection by sharing our expertise and collaborating with others who are fighting the same fight. Working closely with brands, content creators, law enforcement agencies, and industry partners will enhance our ability to combat IP infringements more effectively and ensure swift action. These partnerships bolster our investigative capabilities and reinforce our commitment to upholding the highest standards of legal and ethical practices. By fostering a culture of knowledge sharing, collaboration, and proactive enforcement, we will drive the industry forward, setting new benchmarks for excellence.

We will support this with innovative solutions like our intelligence platform. This platform already tracks and analyzes data on bad actors and investigation targets, enabling our team to conduct efficient and thorough investigations and proactively identify investigation targets that our clients may not even be aware of yet. We will become even more effective by turning this into a collaborative platform that benefits all of our clients and partners.

Learn more about IP House and their work here.