IP House takes an innovative proactive approach to asserting your IP rights. We are truly global. We are outcome focused. We do the right thing. We are your one source for full-range intellectual property protection services.
IP House emerged from a meeting of the minds between two professionals who have dedicated their careers to combating illicit trade.
With 25 years in federal law enforcement leadership roles, most recently as Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Steve Francis has directed Intellectual Property responses across the entire U.S. government.
“From the government side, I could see the outsized expectations that rights holders and investigative firms had for law enforcement. But I also knew that government budgets, minimum dollar thresholds, and legal priorities all meant that the private sector was bound to be perpetually dissatisfied by the extent to which the government could solve this large problem.
“I became convinced that the industry needed a more proactive approach to the problem, combining awareness, education, and risk management with prioritized enforcement. There needed to be a holistic approach rather than a fragmented one. The proposition was that a full-service approach, helping companies look at the whole picture without having to put together a piecemeal collection of vendors, could be far more efficient and effective.”
Jan van Voorn had a different perspective, but saw similar challenges, as he launched and led the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment at the Motion Picture Association. There he realized how powerful it was when responses could be coordinated across organizations.
IP House is backed by experienced, committed investors with deep sector expertise that have led hundreds of transactions and successful investments in services businesses for over 20 years.
“When I looked at what vendors in the private sector were doing, it was clear they weren’t truly global – instead, they were creating a splintered web of contractors and subcontractors to attempt to investigate suspects in one jurisdiction, deploy boots-on-the-ground somewhere else, and trace assets in yet another location. This made the whole process painfully slow, inefficient, and more expensive than it needs to be. The vendors also didn’t realize the benefits that could come with working together across different industries and leveraging more data sources, because they saw each other as competitors.”
Steve and Jan hatched a vision of a private sector vendor who could provide global, end-to-end IP protection services across industries, encompassing both digital and on-ground capabilities.
With a private equity firm backing the concept, the team began identifying the best-of-the-best investigation firms in each target region, acquiring several complementary companies that are now part of the global IP House organization.
“We believe that we can offer clients a service that is both broader and better targeted to their needs, as well as more efficient. As part of our standard process, we proactively identify high impact cases for our clients based on threat intelligence and notice sending actions,” says van Voorn. “We look forward to partnering with our clients to strategize how to get the most from their IP protection budget.”
“We spoke with popular brands worldwide, and they all validated our thesis,” adds Francis. “IP owners are forced to juggle multiple vendors to meet their IP protection needs simply because they have no other choice. IP House solves that problem.”
Major public sector combatants of illicit trade welcomed the innovation brought by IP House:
“We see numerous and growing threats from organized intellectual property crime that spans many jurisdictions and poses a major peril to the UK economy. Collaboration with industry partners like IP House is essential to bringing perpetrators to justice and ensuring fair trade. I’m delighted to see Jan, Steve and their team bring an innovative new truly global solution to the illicit trade prevention marketplace.”
– Gary Robinson, Head of Intellectual Property Crime Unit, Chief Superintendent,
City of London Police
“Public-private partnerships enhance our ability to combat IP crimes around the world. Jan has been a true leader in the piracy space and has what it takes to develop new strategies and tactics that keep us ahead of criminal enterprises. I, as well as the other partners at the IPR Center, look forward to continuing to work with him to combat illicit trade and protect IP rights.”
– James Mancuso, Director, IPR Center
“Education as a primary base for enforcement of IP rights is vital globally to grow knowledge and practical application. As technology exponentially grows, the global impact of the threat from technology in the hands of bad actors will also grow. Steve Francis has been a leader in the space of intellectual property enforcement and understands the importance of the dynamics of these two fundamental cornerstones for protecting IP education and enforcement. I am excited to see what Steve and IP House can do and look forward to continuing to work with him and his team in proactive, collaborative ways to address this issue on a global scale.”
– Kari Kammel, Director, Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Center,
Michigan State University
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