Ari Alibhai

Ari specialises in private prosecution in criminal intellectual property infringement. He successfully prosecuted R v O'Reilly & O'Leary, the first Ul (European case concerning the supplier of an IPTV (lnternet protocol television) system, whose operators defrauded UK and international broadcasters. He acts for corporate clients in music, film, sport and broadcast media, including the Football Association Premier League, Sky and Satellite lnformation Services. He advises on designing and implementing private prosecution systems to reduce exposure to intellectual property theft. Ari chairs Chambers' private prosecution working group, having conducted more than 50 such cases and trained investigators at the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), British Recorded Music lndustry and numerous trading standards services. He prosecuted successfully for FACT in R v Rafiq and others, a multi-million-pound fraud conspiracy using film 'release groups', the first such prosecution outside the US. Ari was called to the Northern lreland Bar following his instruction by the DPP for Northern lreland to prosecute the film copyright case R v Reid and Lewis. He prosecuted Paul Mahoney, convicted of operating a major film piracy website and appeared for the prosecution in the Court of Appeal of Northern lreland in Mahoney's unsuccessful appeal. Ari has trained the Crown Prosecution Service Specialist Fraud Division in the effective prosecution of copyright and trade mark offences.