FAQ of Alibaba Intellectual Property Protection Platform

Patent and Others


To register an account on the IPP Platform, please follow the steps below:
1) Please visit the IPP platform and click the“Register” button in the upper-right corner.

2) Please select the location,identity and registrant category and enter a valid email address and slide the left arrow button to the right for verification.

3) Please tick if you agree on the IPP User Agreement (For the details of the agreement, please click “IPP User Agreement” to check) and click “Agree and register” button to submit the registration application.

4) Please check your mailbox (the email address you have just entered to register the IPP account) and enter the verification code with 6 digits.

5) Pending for verification.


The registered email address is used to log into your IPP Platform account and to receive any notification emails sent from the IPP Platform.
The contact email address will also be used to receive notification emails or important reminders from the IPP Platform in the future.
The two email addresses can be the same one or two different ones, but please make sure to submit (the) correct and valid one(s).

A product URL which remains visible online even after a complaint has been processed might fall into the following scenarios:
1) The complaining party accepted the counternotice from the party being complained of;
2) Alibaba accepted the counternotice from the party being complained of; or
3) The complaining party has withdrawn the complaint.

Currently, if you are an IPR (intellectual property right) owner or you are duly authorized to submit complaints on behalf of an IPR owner, you may file complaints against members on following websites:
1) Taobao.com
2) Tmall.com
3) Tmall.hk
4) 1688.com
5) Alibaba.com
6) AliExpress.com

Scenario 1: New User

If you have not registered account in IPP platform yet, please click the "Register" button at the right side of the login page to create a new account. Then you can login IPP via "Member login" with your username and password.



Scenario 2: You can also use your effective buyer or seller account of Taobao.com, Tmall.com, Alibaba.com, Aliexpress.com, 1688.com to login.

1)If you have IPP account or buyer/seller account in Taobao.com, Tmall.com, TmallHK.com, 1688.com etc., please login as "Member login" ;



2)If you have buyer/seller account in Aliexpress.com, please login as "Aliexpress Login";



3)If you have buyer/seller account in alibaba.com, please login as "Alibaba.com Account Login"



Scenario 3: Other issue

There is unusual activity in your account and you need to verify the account.

The system notification shows as "We have noticed an unusual activity in your account. This might be because you tried to sign in from another location or device. To protect your account we have temporarily locked it." Please follow below steps to authenticate your account.





Contact us

If you have any question on the login issue, please contact with service team.

Alibaba Online Service

Click here for support

Aliexpress Online Service

Click here for support


Yes. When you submit a complaint via the IPP Platform, you will be prompted to match it with the corresponding IPR ownership information that has been submitted and authenticated so that your complaint can be processed more quickly.

No.
After you submit IPR ownership information to the IPP Platform and successfully authenticate it, you will be prompted to identify the specific IPR that is at issue in each complaint.
Therefore, if you have several IPRs, we recommend that you submit them separately for authentication.

① Supporting documents are used to prove that the claimed IPRs are registered or otherwise legitimately owned by either the IPP Platform user or a third-party IPR owner.
They can be trademark, patent or copyright registration certificates with the seal of relevant authorities.
If any IPR or its ownership has been renewed, altered or transferred, please provide relevant supporting documents.
② If the IPP Platform user and the IPR owner are not the same party, the IPP Platform user is required to provide supporting documents which are signed or stamped by the IPR owner to prove he/she has been authorized by the IPR owner to handle IPR complaints on behalf of the IPR owner.

Proof of identity is used to ensure that the IPP Platform user is either the IPR owner or has been authorized by the IPR owner to handle IPR complaints on behalf of the IPR owner.

You may have more than one authenticated IPR on the IPP Platform.
Correctly matching the reported product listing with the corresponding IPR that is allegedly being infringed by the listing will help clarify your claim and greatly assist with our complaint handling.


Please note that the content of the authorization letter will be generated by the system according to the IPR information you provided.
Please also refer to the tips below:
1) The authorization letter should be signed or affixed with the company seal/chop by the IPR owner to authorize the specified IPP Platform user to file infringement claims through the IPP Platform on the IPR owner’s behalf.
2) Please kindly note that authorization for sales or use (e.g., being an official retailer of a certain brand) may not serve as proper authorization for IPR protection.

Once your IPR information is approved, you can submit complaints based on that IPR through the IPP Platform.
If a complaint is accepted to be processed, Alibaba will inform the party being complained of and invite the party to submit a counter-notice.

No.
The Official Filing Receipt issued by intellectual property office shows that the IPR at issue is still under examination, not registered. Therefore, it cannot prove that you are or will be the owner of the IPR.

After your IPP account is successfully registered, your IPR information will be processed after both the identity information and IPR information are submitted.
You may sign in to your IPP account to follow up on the status of the authentication.

If your IPR authentication was subsequently withdrawn, it may be due to one of the following reasons:
1) The term of IPR has expired.
If the IPR has been renewed, the application for authentication can be re-submitted with supporting documents to demonstrate the renewal.
2) The term of the authorization letter for IPR enforcement has expired.
If the authorization term has been renewed or supplemented, the application for authentication can be re-submitted with relevant supporting documentation.
3) The term of an identity certificate has expired.
The application for authentication may be re-submitted with a new valid ID or company/business registration certificate.
4) Other reasons.
If the submitted IPR becomes or is declared as invalid, we will not process related complaint request.
Note: For detailed information, please sign into your IPP account, click “Edit” under the “Authentication Failed” status to check the reason in the upper middle section of the webpage, and make necessary adjustments to the IPR information accordingly.
(Note: Please refer to the screenshots as below:)

If you have registered more than one account under the same complainant name on IPP platform, you are required to confirm which one is the sole account that you will use to submit IPR claims on the IPP Platform.
Once you have confirmed the sole account successfully, you may use that account to submit your complaints.
Please sign into your IPP account and provide the required information according to the instructions:
1) For business entities:
Please provide a scanned copy or digital photo of your original business registration certificate, a stamped exclusive account statement, and the identity card of the legal representative(if applicable).
2) For individuals:
Please provide scanned copy or digital photo of your original Identity card/Passport/Driving License with your photo, and a signed exclusive account statement.

If your IPR complaint was rejected from being processed, it might be caused by one or more of the reasons below:
1) The reported product listing(s) is (are) invalid.
2) The claimed IPRs do not match with the reported product listings:
① The complained products and the products protected under the claimed IPR do not constitute similar goods or do not fall into the same class.
For example, if the claimed trademark protection class is for clothing while the product being complained is jewelry, the complaint would be rejected.
② The use of claimed IPR cannot be located in the reported product listing.

If you are the IPR owner or otherwise authorized to file complaints through the IPP Platform on behalf of the IPR owner, you are kindly recommended to submit the complaint based on the actual situation, like choosing the appropriate complaint reason and uploading related supporting documents.
For example:
If the party being complained of has its own brand A, but it used your trademark keywords for brand B in its product name, then you may choose the complaint reason as “Unfair/Unauthorized use of other party’s trademark”.
If the party being complained of used your trademark for brand B to falsely represent the product as your brand, you may choose the complaint reason as “Counterfeit” and provide related proof of counterfeit.

Alibaba wishes to assist you to better protect your IPR.
However, due to the instability of the utility model and design patent, the Patent Evaluation Report is much more effective to prove the validity of your patent and facilitate our processing of your request.
We kindly recommended you to apply for the Patent Evaluation Report as soon as possible.

If the seller commits any IPR infringement, we will assist you to protect your IPRs.
However, in a situation where the seller merely does not have your authorization to sell your goods, we are unable to determine that the seller has infringed your IPR.
For example, the seller might buy the products from an authorized distributor or agent.
We recommend that you provide additional supporting documents to demonstrate the infringement.

If you encounter any difficulty submitting product URLs, please refer to the possible reasons below:
1) More than 200 product listings are being submitted
2) Some of the URLs are not from an Alibaba website
3) Some of the listings do not direct to a specific product listing (i.e. URLs directing to search result pages )
4) There are no line breaks to separate the entered product URLs
5) Invalid product URLs are being submitted
6) The words in the URL are not in English
7) For take-down requests on products from AliExpress.ru: AliExpress.ru and AliExpress.com are independent, mutually autonomous platforms with completely different operating entities. If you wish to file a takedown request against a product from Aliexpress.ru, please use the following link: https://business.aliexpress.ru/legal-docs/article/intellectual-property, or contact ipr_protection@aliexpress.ru. We appreciate your understanding.


If you have submitted an IPR documents through the IPP platform, you may click the “IPR Management” tab to check the authentication status and edit the IPR information if fail to authenticate. You may refer to the screenshot as below:

If you have submitted a complaint through the IPP Platform, you may sign into your IPP account and click the “Manage Complaints” tab to check your complete complaint history across different Alibaba websites. You may refer to the screenshot as below:




If the trademark is still in the process of application acceptance and has not obtained the exclusive right of the registered trademark, please submit the trademark after it has been successfully registered.


If you have more than one trademark registration certificate, please submit the certificates and qualification materials separately. One intellectual property right application can only submit one trademark registration certificate.


After your identity and intellectual property materials are submitted and verified, you can log in to the "Alibaba Intellectual Property Protection Platform" (ipp.alibababagroup.com), click " Submit a Complaint" to complain about the suspected infringing goods or information on each platform, as shown below:

Step 1: Select a complaint website/platform


Step 2: Select the complaint reason under matched intellectual property right, and then submit infringing goods’ information and upload infringement proof materials



For Taobao.com/Tmall.com/TmallHK.com, please refer to:"click here"
For Alibaba.com/Aliexpress.com, please refer to::"click here"
For Lazada.com, please refer to::"click here"


Copyright registration is a public record of copyright ownership as to a copyrighted work which results from the copyright owner’s successful application with the relevant copyright registration authorities. In some jurisdictions, it may serve as prima facie proof of the owner’s copyright ownership.
A copyright registration certificate is issued once the copyright owner's application is reviewed and approved by relevant copyright registration authorities.
A copyright registration certificate that is submitted as IPR ownership information on the IPP Platform must include the registration page and the pages bearing the content of the work with the official seal/chop of copyright registration, like the example below.

Example of registration page

Example of pages bearing the content of the work



There are a few ways to submit notices of copyright infringement to Alibaba. The best way is to register an account on the IPP Platform and provide the indicated information required for Alibaba to process your takedown notices promptly and effectively. On the IPP Platform you can also manage and track all your notices via your account. Alternatively, you may also file takedown notices via our online form system (https://ipp.alibabagroup.com/complaint/onlineForm/online.htm) or by email at ipr@alibaba-inc.com. PLEASE NOTE: Using the IPP Platform is the quickest way to get your claim addressed.


The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a copyright law of the United States which enables copyright owners to request to have removed from a website infringing content posted by other users, provided that their takedown notices comply with the requirements of the DMCA. A takedown notice that complies with the DMCA includes substantially the following information:
 A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright that is allegedly infringed.
 Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
 Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
 The complaining party’s contact information.
 A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
 A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
If you submit a DMCA-compliant notice, Alibaba will process your complaint, but please note that your complaint may not ultimately be successful for a variety of reasons (e.g., the seller submits a successful counter-notice contesting removal).


Alibaba respects the intellectual property of others. If you believe that your copyrighted works have been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you can submit a DMCA notice via the IPP Platform. We respond promptly to concerns of rights owners about any alleged infringement.

If you prefer to submit a notice in writing, please provide us with following information by email to ipr@alibaba-inc.com:

 An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright;
 A description of the copyrighted work that you allege has been infringed;
 A description of where the alleged infringing material is located on the site;
 Your address, telephone number, and email address;
 A statement (by you) that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
 A statement (by you), made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Alibaba's DMCA designated agent can be contacted at:
Intellectual Property Rights Protection Department
969 West Wen Yi Road, Yuhang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311121, PRC
Email: ipr@alibaba-inc.com

Note: This procedure is exclusively for notifying Alibaba that your copyrighted material has been infringed.



(Updated on June 10, 2019)
Please be kindly noted that the complaint reasons and penalty rules for copyright infringement will be amended in order to further improve right owners’ experience of enforcing intellectual property rights. Please refer to the below for more details.

Firstly, the complaint reasons for copyright infringement of serious infringement and general infringement will be revoked, and the new complaint reasons as below:

1) the product or its packaging is pirated;
2) the product or its packaging includes unauthorized copyrighted content or images without being pirated;
3) the image is used without authorization on the Product Detail Page;
4) the text is used without authorization on the Product Detail Page.

Secondly, Alibaba.com and AliExpress sellers will accumulate penalty points for copyright infringement based on successful copyright infringement complaints from the same rights owner, without regard to the copyrighted work.