The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is seeking applications for funding for the Intellectual Property Enforcement Program (IPEP): Protecting Public Health, Safety and the Economy from Counterfeit Goods and Product Piracy.

IPEP is designed to improve the capacity of state, local, tribal, and territorial criminal justice systems to address intellectual property (IP) enforcement, including prosecution, prevention, and training and technical assistance. Awards will support law enforcement agencies that have an IP enforcement task force or plan to create one.

The goals of this program is to improve coordination of intellectual property (IP) enforcement efforts among federal, state, and local authorities contributes to the Department’s priority of reducing crime.

Focus Areas

These efforts shall include aggressive investigating and prosecuting a wide range of IP crimes, with a particular focus on:

• public health and safety;
• theft of trade secrets and economic espionage;
• large scale commercial counterfeiting and piracy.

Funding Information

• Estimated Total Program Funding: $2,400,000
• Award Ceiling: $400,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Applicants:
  • State governments
  • County governments
  • Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
  • City or township governments
  • Special district governments
  • Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
  • Others
  • Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
• Additional Information on Eligibility:
  • To advance Executive Order 13929 Safe Policing for Safe Communities, the Attorney General determined that all state, local, and university or college law enforcement agencies must be certified by an approved independent credentialing body or have started the certification process to be eligible for FY 2021 DOJ discretionary grant funding. To become certified, the law enforcement agency must meet two mandatory conditions: (1) the agency’s use of force policies adhere to all applicable federal, state, and local laws; and (2) the agency’s use of force policies prohibit chokeholds except in situations where use of deadly force is allowed by law. The certification requirement also applies to law enforcement agencies receiving DOJ discretionary grant funding through a subaward.

For more information, visit IPEP.