Alibaba introduces IP collaboration platform

Alibaba Group has launched an online platform designed to streamline IP-related communications between brands and Alibaba.

The new IP Joint-Force System aims to build greater and more collaborative working relationships with global brands as the company strengthens its efforts against counterfeits and IP infringement.

“E-commerce has become a way of life for consumers both in China and around the world. As the internet sector continues to evolve, brands and online marketplaces alike face new IP enforcement challenges,” said Jessie Zheng, chief platform governance officer at Alibaba Group.

With over a billion products listed across Alibaba Group’s marketplaces at any given time, its data analytics and processing technologies enabled the company to proactively remove more than 120 million infringing product listings from its marketplaces in 2015, which it said is eight times the number of counterfeit products removed based on takedown requests from brands.

Under the new IP Joint-Force System, each participating brand will be assigned a dedicated online portal and Alibaba account manager to enhance collaboration, heighten transparency around IP enforcement efforts, and reinforce mutual understanding and trust.

The system will also enable Alibaba to directly and efficiently seek information from rights holders regarding suspected counterfeit product listings, which Alibaba, as a third-party marketplace, is unable to authenticate on its own with full certainty.

Alibaba will then initiate the Good Faith Takedown process and immediately remove the listing without required subsequent correspondence with the brand.

Alibaba recently held the inaugural Rights Holders Collaboration Summit to engage international brands and the intellectual property enforcement community to enhance collaboration in the collective fight against IP infringement.

More than 100 domestic Chinese and international brands and trade associations attended the event, including Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Apple, Mars, Hewlett-Packard, the Chinese-British Business Council (CBBC) and the Quality Brand Protection Committee (QBPC), among others.

“The Rights Holders Collaboration Summit and new IP Joint-Force System are some of the many ways Alibaba is working closely with rights holders in our efforts to eradicate counterfeits both online and offline,” Zheng said.