For the twentieth time, the Anti-Piracy Coalition awarded Golden Badges (Złote Blachy) – honorary awards to police officers for spectacular successes in the fight against intellectual property theft.
The awards ceremony was held on June 21 at the Police Headquarters in Warsaw, with the participation of Deputy Police Chief Maj. Gen. Paweł Dobrodziej. The winners received the awards from the hands of Teresa Wierzbowska, president of the Sygnał Association, representing the Anti-Piracy Coalition. Representatives of the Coalition were also accompanied by Karolina Szostak, a sports journalist, reporter and TV presenter.
The lifting of pandemic restrictions made it possible to return to the organization of the event and award prizes not only for last year, but also for 2019-2020.
– This type of crime is one of the most difficult. We are all the more effective the better we cooperate with other entities, services, organizations,” said Maj. Gen. Pawel Dobrodziej, addressing the audience. – Thank you for the many years of cooperation with the Anti-Piracy Coalition, for assisting with the implementation of cases, but also for the training, thanks to which police officers move more easily and freely in this area and are more confident and effective in their actions.
Teresa Wierzbowska spoke about the considerable challenge of fighting intellectual property theft. – The police’s exemplary handling of cases later translates into court rulings and the amount of remediation in cases related to piracy of audiovisual content, and these have been record-breaking in recent years for the aggrieved, the Sygnał’s president noted.
Hosting the ceremony, Mikołaj Wojtal – attorney for the Association of Audio Video Producers – also stressed the importance of the awards for the creative community – Golden Badges are a symbolic award and have a special value primarily for us – representatives of the creative sectors. For us, the Golden Badges are a pretext to meet directly and personally express our gratitude to police officers who, with their expert knowledge, but also with their cleverness, contribute effectively to the fight against the phenomenon of intellectual property piracy. We also know after many editions of the Golden Badges that these awards are also appreciated by the honored themselves, and this is a special satisfaction for us.
A total of eight prizes were awarded Golden Badges.