New York, NY, May 7, 2024 — Veteran intellectual property (IP) protection executives Steve Francis and Jan van Voorn, today announced the launch of IP House, a private sector company founded to support organizations in combating IP theft and defending their innovations from illicit trade.
For decades global brands have faced relentless and escalating attacks in the form of piracy, counterfeiting, and other forms of IP infringement to their intellectual property, which accounts for 65% of the value of Fortune 500 companies. These illicit activities drain a massive $2.5 Trillion annually from the global economy, undermine the integrity of the most valuable global brands and entertainment properties, and often pose serious threats to public safety.
Backed by a sophisticated US-based investment firm, IP House integrates the capabilities of best-in-class investigative teams from major commercial centers around the world, supported by proprietary technology platforms. Several initial acquisitions have been made, giving the new company over 250 professional investigators, analysts and IP law specialists, and an installed client base exceeding 275 of the world’s leading brands. The company expects to close additional acquisitions in the near future.
The new company is designed to deliver proactive, end-to-end intellectual property protection at scale, addressing threats more completely than the industry’s patchwork of point solution vendors can do. Through proprietary technology and partnerships with government and law enforcement organizations around the world, IP House’s data-driven approach is able to escalate investigations through enforcement to achieve valuable commercial outcomes.
IP House Executive Chairman Steve Francis helped found the company following a 25-year career in federal law enforcement leadership roles, including serving as Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center). “From the government side, I could see the outsized expectations that rights holders and investigative firms had for law enforcement. The industry needed a more proactive, more holistic way to help companies look at the whole picture, without having to coordinate a piecemeal collection of vendors and law enforcement agencies,” Francis commented.
Jan van Voorn joined IP House as CEO, following a distinguished career leading global content protection for the Motion Picture Association (MPA), where he launched and scaled the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). Van Voorn said, “When I looked at what vendors in the private sector were doing, it was clear they weren’t truly global. 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. We look forward to partnering with our clients to strategize how to get the most from their IP protection budget.”
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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About IP House
IP House serves major organizations across industries to defend and enforce their intellectual property rights anywhere in the world. With a rapidly growing team of 250+ professional investigators, analysts and IP law specialists, IP House deploys integrated proactive and reactive tactics to detect, disrupt, escalate and enforce cases of IP infringement and commercial fraud. More information is available at ip-house.com.
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