Websites infringing intellectual property (IP) by offering consumers unauthorised content
significantly impact the UK economy, affecting businesses, jobs and tax revenue. These
websites are focused at UK consumers, located throughout the world and operate in a
dynamic environment. Enforcement against them is critical, but only addresses the worst
offenders. An important complementary strategy adopted by the UK Government is “Follow
the Money” i.e. to tackle revenue sources providing most IP infringing websites with their
financial lifeline (advertising and subscription revenue).
whiteBULLET has created the first comprehensive, global online IP risk assessment solution:
the IP Infringement Index (IPI Index®). The IPI Index® is a pioneering concept, providing a
standardised means of rating websites by reference to IP infringement, through a proprietary
methodology. The resulting standard consistently and objectively scores websites then applies
a risk ranking from low (<250) to medium (250-750) to high (>750). The IPI Index® is a
unique, innovative and independent scoring methodology, which can be delivered through
existing and new technology platforms to ensure its application is efficient and scalable.
IPI Index® scores can guide online intermediaries, such as advertising companies or payment
processors, as to the IP risk posed by websites, allowing each user to make an informed
choice on how to interact with a website. Many intermediaries inadvertently support IPinfringing
websites as they do not know how to objectively and transparently identify IP
infringements on websites. This project seeks to further develop and automate the IPI Index®
technology to broaden its scope and to operationalise it as a tool for intermediaries for
improved transparency of potential IP risk. This supports the UK Government’s strategy on
tackling IP infringement online, assist UK IP and creative industries and provide an effective
solution to digital intermediaries.