IP infringement on Taobao falls, Alibaba report shows

Alibaba has announced success in its efforts to reduce IP infringement on its Taobao onlinemarket place, according to reports.

According to Singapore-based The Straits Times, more than one in every 10,000 orders on Taobao last year involved suspected fake goods. In its annual IP protection report last week, Alibaba said this was a success in its bid to reduce infringement on the Taobao platform.

Alibaba’s chief of platform governance, Zheng Junfang, told The Straits Times that Alibaba had increased its efforts to identify counterfeit goods.

“Sources of counterfeit goods were put under unprecedented pressure, and the space for counterfeiters was squeezed to a high degree last year,” Zheng said.

“It was the first time that all indicators in the fight against sales of counterfeits online showed a sharp decline,” Zheng added.

The conglomerate said IP rights complaints from brand owners fell by 32% last year when compared with the year before. It also claimed to have taken down 96% of goods suspected of infringing IP rights before any sales were made.

In 2016, Taobao was placed on the “Notorious Markets List”, a US government blacklist of online and physical marketplaces known to have facilitated “substantial piracy and counterfeiting”.

The e-commerce site remained on the list in 2018. Alibaba has since publicly increased its efforts against counterfeit goods and established an IP Research Institute in 2018.

According to The Straits Times, the Office of the US Trade Representative said Alibaba had taken positive steps to fight infringements, but a high volume of reportedly infringing products continue to be sold on Taobao.

In 2017, Alibaba launched an online platform called the IP Joint-Force System, which it said streamlined communications and collaboration to help improve IP enforcement online.

The company also sued two vendors who used Taobao to sell fake Swarovski watches.

Alibaba claimed that it was the first instance of an internet platform taking a counterfeiter to court in China.