The Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission processed a total of 152 procedures in 2018

In 2018, the Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission processed four times more procedures to safeguard rights than in 2017.

Since its creation, the Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission of the Ministry of Culture and Sports has achieved the cessation of the activity of 114 pirate websites. In 2018 alone, it has processed 152 rights safeguard procedures of intellectual property in the digital environment, four times more procedures than in all of 2017.

Of the 618 total requests that have been submitted by rights holders (53 of them since January 1, 2018), the Second Section has processed, between January 1 and December 31, 2018, 152 procedures, which represents a reduction in processing times (periods dedicated to identifying the owner of the allegedly infringing websites and instruction periods for the procedures processed) more than 70% compared to 2017. In this sense, the Second Section has an average of 120 days in processing times.

Of the more than 150 procedures processed in 2018, 12 have been the subject of a request for judicial authorization to block the infringing web domain, obtaining 9 judicial authorizations for said blocking, ultimately affecting more than 25 infringing web pages. To this data, we must add the 22 judicial resolutions issued by the National Court authorizing the blocking, in Spanish territory, of 54 domain names subject to actions by the Second Section of the ICC.

On the other hand, of the total number of procedures processed in 2018, 60 have led to the archiving of actions (either due to removal of content prior to the start of the file, or due to removal of content once the Second Section notifies the start of the procedure to reestablish legality). This data means that in 39.47% of cases, those responsible for infringing websites voluntarily remove the contents when they know that they are being investigated by the Second Section.

Since the creation of the Second Section, The global number of websites affected by the ICC's actions amounts to 466, y de esas 466 webs afectadas/requeridas, todas menos 32 han retirado los contenidos ilícitos tras la resolución definitiva; esto supone que el 93,13% de las webs requeridas han retirado los contenidos infractores. Dentro de estas cifras se incluyen 114 casos de ceses completos de actividad desde 2011.

Cabe destacar que la labor de Sección Segunda ha permitido reducir en este último año en España la audiencia de páginas pirata: en 2017 había 19 webs pirata entre las 250 más visitadas de nuestro país, y en 2018 son sólo 13 páginas pirata en esa lista.

En 2018, el ministerio de Cultura y Deporte impuso la primera sanción económica a una web pirata por infringir la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual (TRLPI), una sanción que ha conllevado el pago de una multa de 375.000 euros y el cierre por un año de la web infractora.

Los avances que España está logrando en el terreno de la defensa de los derechos de propiedad intelectual en Internet son cada vez reconocidos y respaldados en todo el mundo, dos ejemplos son el Informe anual Special 301 Report del Departamento de Comercio estadounidense, dado a conocer el pasado 28 de abril de 2018, o el informe The roots of innovation de la US Chamber of Commerce, en los que se destaca la política española en materia de propiedad intelectual.