Our Principles
Alibaba is committed to protecting intellectual property rights in order to maintain a healthy and safe e-commerce environment and preserving the trust that consumers and merchants place in us. By leveraging our advanced technologies, as well as engaging in close collaboration with stakeholders (such as rights holders, trade associations and governments), we implement best practices to protect intellectual property rights in our notice and take-down procedures, proactive identification and take-down of infringing listings, and assistance to law enforcement authorities in investigations and enforcement actions.
- We are committed to being an industry leader and trusted partner in the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).
- We will make all reasonable efforts to facilitate the efficient submission and processing of proper complaints involving suspected IPR infringement.
- Rights holders seeking to enforce on our platforms have the responsibility to follow our platform rules for submitting take-down requests, including providing proof of IPR ownership and evidence of IPR infringement behavior.
- We will penalize violators of our platform’s intellectual property protection policies and, where appropriate, pursue civil and criminal action.
- We will not entertain take-down requests and other complaints that carry malicious intent (for example, requests intended to disrupt a competitor’s operations or reputation). We will sanction those who submit take-down requests or other complaints that in our good faith judgment have malicious intent.
- We will implement and enforce our IPR protection policies in accordance with applicable laws in applicable jurisdictions.
Our Policies
Intellectual property rights holders, including their authorized representatives, can file complaints in the form of take-down requests on the Alibaba Intellectual Property Protection platform (the “IPP” platform) on listed products or product descriptions that allegedly infringe their IPR.
Eligible complaints on the IPP platform:
- 1. Trademark infringement such as misuse of identical or confusingly similar marks, and use of counterfeit marks.
- 2. Copyright infringement such as unauthorized use of 3rd party’s copyrighted photography as well as offer of unauthorized copies, including copies of books, music, videos, software, video games, television programs, paintings and photos.
- 3. Patent infringement such as infringement on invention and design patents.
- 4. Deceptive practices such as intentional covering or blurring of infringing marks on products offered for sale.
Consistent with international standard, our general practice is to accept take-down requests subject to territorial protection of intellectual property rights. For example, our China domestic platforms such as Taobao Marketplace accept take-down requests based on China registered intellectual property rights. Our international platforms such as Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com accept take-down requests based on international intellectual property rights.
Ineligible complaints on the IPP platform:
Our IPP platform is established for the purpose of managing IPR complaints and the IPP platform will not respond to complaints unrelated to IPR infringement; specifically, the following types of complaints will not be eligible for the IPP platform:
- 1. Distribution contract and channel management: Alibaba respects the rights of rights holders and their partners (including distributors) to enter into lawful agreements concerning the terms of distribution and sale of their goods. However, disputes arising from those agreements do not involve intellectual property infringement issues and are matters for the parties to the agreements to resolve.
- 2. Prohibited or unlawful products: Complaints relating to prohibited, restricted and/or unlawful products (for example, weapons and explosives). If you believe a listing is prohibited by law and would like to file a complaint, please click on “Report item”/”Report Suspicious Activity” on the corresponding listing page.
- 3. Sale price control: products listed for sale under a specific price point, such as Minimal Advertised Price (MAP) or Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP).
Responsibility of Sellers
Alibaba is committed to the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as providing a safe and trusted marketplace for our customers. Across all of our platforms, sellers are responsible for ensuring that goods they list for sale do not infringe others’ intellectual property rights. The sale of counterfeit and pirated goods on Alibaba platforms is prohibited, as is other infringement of intellectual property rights. The posting of deliberately misleading information is also prohibited, such as photos that intentionally cover or blur the trademarks on the products offered for sale, keywords that intentionally misspell recognized brand names, and descriptions that imply the products offered for sale are highly similar to products by recognized brands. Violations of these policies may result in, among other measures, product delisting, temporary selling suspensions, and/or permanent account closure. In addition, where appropriate, we reserve the rights to pursue civil and criminal action.
Instructions
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