Secretary Napolitano highlighted the Department's progress in 2011, emphasizing the major steps the Department has taken this year to enhance America's capabilities to protect intellectual property rights and combat against violations.
- In September 2011, an ICE-led task force participated in Operation Pangea IV, which worked with 81 countries to target the online sale of counterfeit and illegal medicines. Coordinated by INTERPOL, this operation was the largest of its kind and resulted in dozens of arrests and the seizure of more than 7,900 packages containing more than 2.4 million potentially harmful medicines worldwide worth $6.3 million. Additionally, as part of this operation, 13,495 websites engaged in illegal activity have been taken down.
- In FY 2011, DHS participated in the negotiation of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) with Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand and Singapore, an agreement that was signed in October 2011 and aims to enhance international cooperation and provide tougher and more effective standards in intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement.