Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) principal mission is to investigate criminal activity and defend the security] of the United States. It has identified 10 priority enforcement areas, including [[cybercrime. IP enforcement is included in the cybercrime area, but it is ranked 5th out of FBI’s 6 cybercrime priorities.

FBI conducts investigations of IP-related criminal activity, including [trademark infringement|infringement of trademark]] and copyright law, as well as theft of trade secrets. Within its IP enforcement efforts, FBI’s priorities are, in order, trade secret theft, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and signal theft, and one of FBI’s IP enforcement goals is for its field offices to initiate IP investigations that affect public health and safety. FBI’s Cyber Division oversees the agency’s IP enforcement efforts even though not all of its IP investigations are cyber-related. A single unit within the Cyber Division, called the Cyber Crime Fraud Unit, has operational and management oversight for all of FBI’s cybercrime activities. IP-related investigations are primarily carried out in FBI’s 56 field offices.