Alibaba Group’s intellectual property rights-protection efforts showed continued success last year, according to the e-commerce giant’s newly released report.
A combination of ever-improving technologies and close partnerships with brands and other external stakeholders helped to deliver strong results in the core areas of proactive monitoring and removal, rights-holder takedown requests and offline enforcement, the annual IPR report noted.
According to the report, key results of Alibaba’s increasingly effective IP-protection programs for 2019 include:
Notably, membership in the Alibaba Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance (AACA), which brings rights holders and other IP stakeholders together to share industry and technical expertise in the fight against IP infringers, grew to 170 rights holders (representing more than 500 brands) from around the world by the end of 2019. This is up from 30 at its launch in January 2017. Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Fossil, Siemens, Dyson, Kohler and Coach are among the brand owners to join in 2019. Among these 170 rights holders, European representatives account for 31% of members, with rights holders from the Americas, China and the Asia Pacific region accounting for 30%, 25% and 14%, respectively.
Key Initiatives
In its annual IP protection report, Alibaba also attributed the results to a number of IP-protection initiatives put in place by the company:
Global Recognition
The strong results of Alibaba’s IPR initiatives won the acknowledgement of IPR stakeholders globally. In May 2019, the World Trademark Review named Alibaba Group the Asia Pacific Team of the Year for its work in IPR protection, making Alibaba the only Chinese company to have won the award to date. Matthew Bassiur, vice president and head of global intellectual-property enforcement at Alibaba Group, also won the Luxury Law Innovator in IP Rights and Technology award at the Luxury Law Summit in London in April last year.
Additional Third-Party Praise for Alibaba’s IP-Protection Work:
“Alibaba has grabbed the flag on IPR protection and is running with it. We greatly appreciate their close collaboration.” – Rick Helfenbein, President and CEO, American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA)
“Alibaba over the past three years has gone from being criticized for its efforts in IP protection to being viewed as a leader and innovator in the field.” – Fred Mostert, President, Luxury Law Alliance
“Alibaba has so substantially enhanced their IPR protection program to the point that we, and many other stakeholders, are comfortable in referring to their IPR protection program as the gold standard within the e-commerce industry.” – Bob Barchiesi, President, International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC)
“We…recognize the Alibaba team for their highly cooperative and proactive approach to IPR enforcement. Alibaba has shown a real commitment to protecting rights holders of all sizes, to include SMEs.” – José Antonio Moreno – Director General, ANDEMA
“… Alibaba’s anti-counterfeiting policies and programs are significantly more effective than any of their U.S. counterparts. They are working very closely with all complaining brand owners and are using cutting-edge technology to scan for and detect counterfeits. I find it shocking U.S. platforms are so far behind.” – Congressman Doug Collins, Ranking Member, Judiciary Committee, U.S. House of Representatives
“We greatly value the close collaboration that we enjoy with the China IP offices and our e-commerce partner Alibaba, with which we are co-hosting this event.” – Ros Lynch, Director, Copyright and IP Enforcement, UK Intellectual Property Office
“Alibaba’s notable partnership and expertise on the business development front is matched by their devotion and concerted efforts in IPR protection.” – Tim Pfeiffer, Senior Vice President, Entertainment One (parent company to Peppa Pig)
The report is available here in Chinese, with an international English version forthcoming.