Brand Protection & Content Protection
-Takedown Guides-

What Is The IPP Platform

Alibaba’s IPP Platform is a unified portal to report IPR infringements to the Group regardless of the ecommerce platform or infringement type in question. The portal is great for rightsholders to submit, track and escalate IPR infringement issues, covering Taobao, Tmall, Tmall Global, 1688, Alibaba.com, AliExpress and Lazada. Note: Taobao Xianyu infringements can be submitted by selecting Taobao.

Rightsholders must register for access to the portal before accessing.

To register the rightsholder must first state whether they are based in mainland China or elsewhere. The next choice of ‘Individual’ or ‘Enterprise’ relates to the IP owner and not the status of the registrant category. The next option is the ‘Registrant category’, with the options being ‘Right holder’ or Authorized agent’. If the authorised agent is a rights protection organisation working on behalf of a rightsholder, then ‘Individual’ must be selected under identity and agent under registrant. Incorrectly created accounts will lead to significant delays in being able to report IPR infringement. The following boxes are to create the account using an email address and password. It is recommended to have a specific email account set-up for the sole purpose of receiving communications from Alibaba as the volume can be overwhelming. To complete the form, the registrant must agree to the ‘IPP User Agreement’ and ‘IPP Privacy Policy’ – it is advised to carefully read both documents prior to registering. Once completed, click ‘Agree and Register’, a verification code will be sent to the supplied email to proceed with registration. Enter the code and click ‘Submit’. Then navigate to the IPP Platform and select ‘Sign in’. Alibaba may automatically redirect the user to another login page to create a Taobao account, this step can be ignored, although it is advised to create the account for monitoring purposes. To complete the registration to the portal, click the link above and sign into the IPP platform by entering the email and password details. The portal will then prompt the registrant to ‘complete identity information’ before submitting a complaint. The information required depends on whether the rightsholder is an individual or company. For an individual, proof of identity is required (i.e. a personal ID card), for a company, proof of company registration is required. Once the set-up is complete, IPRs should be connected to the account for submissions.

How Upload IPRs To The IPP Platform

Starting from the IPP Platform homepage (click ‘My Page’ in the top left of the screen to return to the home dashboard) click ‘IPR Submission’ under the ‘My IPR’ tab. Firstly, the IPR type must be selected from ‘Trademark’, ‘Copyright’, ‘Patent’ and ‘Other’.

Trademarks – must be registered. For enforcement on domestic platforms, Chinese registered trademarks are necessary. Pending trademarks cannot be uploaded or relied upon.

Copyrights – in China copyrights must be registered to be enforced, however, Alibaba is very aware not all countries follow this process and therefore unregistered copyrights can be enforced on international platforms i.e. AliExpress. The rightsholder must provide a statement of ownership to identify the copyright protected works.

Patents – patents require an evaluation report alongside the patent certification. Designs are submitted by selecting the patent option.

Other – this option should be used for rightsholders who have obtained court judgements which they will use as the basis for takedown complaints i.e. for unfair competition. Other rights not recognised by the above categories should also be uploaded via this option, however, it is recommended to seek advice directly from Alibaba prior to enforcement. A failure to do so often leads to low ‘Successful takedown rate’ which damages the rightsholders chance of being accepted into the Good Faith Program.

Once the relevant choice is selected, the IPR must be uploaded into the portal. Instructions are provided as to the format, file size and file type which must be used. Once uploaded, click ‘Next’ to proceed. The portal will then bring up the relevant form, i.e. for trademarks, the registrant will be asked to provide the ‘Name of the trademark’, ‘Registration number’, ‘Registrant’, ‘Expiration date’, ‘Class’ and ‘Brand related to the trademark’.  Once complete, click ‘Next’ to provide the ‘Additional information’ required. In this section information regarding ownership is requested, including whether the trademark ‘has been renewed’, ‘assigned’ or ‘altered’. If so, further details will be required to show proof of ownership etc. The final section concerns the authorisation of the account to enforce the IPR. Once this is completed, click ‘Submit for verification’, Alibaba will then check the details and respond whether the IPR has been successful connected to the account. All successfully uploaded IPRs can be viewed under ‘IPR Management’ in the ‘My IPR’ tab. Alibaba also provides the number of IPR verification failures, with a hyperlink to view them in tabular format with the option to ‘Edit’, which enables errors to be correct for the re-submission of the IPR. Once IPRs have been uploaded, infringements can be reported for removal.

How To Remove Intellectual Property Infringements From Alibaba

Starting from the dashboard, click ‘Submit a Complaint’ under the ‘Complaint Submission’ tab. The reporter will then be presented with the seven platforms on which the infringement is to be reported. For Taobao, Tmall and 1688, the rightsholder is required to have Chinese registered rights to enforce. For Tmall Global, the rightsholder must have registered rights in either mainland China or Hong Kong. For Lazada, the rightsholder must have a right in the respective country registered – Lazada covers Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam. Also to note, for Taobao and Tmall (including Global) the reporter has the option to report an infringing listing, or an entire storefront.

The first box in this section requires the IPR type to be selected i.e. trademark, copyright etc. Lazada is the exception, with the first option being to select the regional version being reported. As such, the IPR type is squashed next to the IPR list.

Following the standard format, the second box is a dropdown of all the relevant IPRs uploaded to the IPP Platform which correspond to the type selected in the above box. This simplifies the process. It is advised rightsholders ensure the naming convention of IPRs is logical, otherwise the dropdown approach becomes a selection of confusion. The reporter must then select whether the complaint is in regard to a product listing or store front and then the reason code. This part of the form causes the most difficultly for rightsholders and leads to poor takedown rates, a failure to gain acceptance on the good faith system and significant frustration. Alibaba has a bewildering number of reason codes relating to each IPR category. It is advised that inexperienced reporters seek advice before starting to submit IPR complaints to Alibaba. An incorrect reason code cannot be fixed and is almost certain to be rejected by Alibaba or countered by the infringer. The rightsholder will then have to submit a new complaint with the correct infringement reason code. An incorrect reason code cannot be ‘fixed’, it will count as an unsuccessful takedown request, which will negatively the rightsholders ability to join the good faith program, as successful rate is a key determinate.

In the next box the infringing listings must be entered, each on a new line. Bulk submissions up to 300 listings is allowed. It is advised inexperienced reporters do not submit complaints in bulk in order to avoid a situation whereby 300 URLs are rejected. To achieve good faith status the account requires a success rate of over 90%, therefore at least 2,700 accepted notices must be filed before the rightsholder can achieve the minimum threshold. Each URL submitted will be verified by the portal to ensure the correct URL structure has been entered and is still active. The reporter must then enter ‘Supplement infringement reason(s)’ to assist the case handler understand the infringement. This section is especially important for rightsholders new to the platform as Alibaba will be inexperienced in handling such complaints. Therefore, thorough reasons explain the IPR infringement must be provided. Also, a document can be uploaded to the complaint, such as images of a test purchase to support a counterfeit claim. Once completed, the reporter clicks ‘Submit’ for the notice to be filed.

Alibaba provides a useful workflow of the submission process. All submitted complaints can be viewed from the ‘Manage Complaints’ option under the ‘Complaint Submission’ tab access from the dashboard. After selecting this option, the user must choose the platform again i.e. clicking on the Taobao logo. The user can then ‘Check complaint details’ or Withdraw complaint’ when the status is process subject to counter notification. If the notification has been countered, the reporter can reject the counter notification by providing a reason. There is the option to batch reject counter notification, which is an efficient means of processing spurious claims. However, it is advised to carefully view complaints and respond appropriately to each. The success rate of counter notifications is another key determining factor in whether a rightsholder can join the good faith program.

Good Faith Program

The dashboard provide a range of information for a rightsholder to effectively manage their account. Based on the figures the rightsholder should be able to determine whether they meet the criteria for acceptance on the good faith program. The four requirements are having a +90% success rate for takedowns, less than 5% success rate for counter notifications, no record of abusive complaints and sign a declaration upon joining. By joining the program, rightsholders are given faster takedowns, have a lower burden in terms of providing supplemental information and access to new initiatives of Alibaba (at Alibaba’s discretion). The lower burden is the main benefit as it significantly reduces reporting time. However, this is dependent upon the infringement type. Screenshots and other supporting evidence is still recommended for good faith reporters when appropriate. Grouping similar infringements into a single notice with a single piece of supporting evidence is an efficient method for good faith reporters to follow.

Click here for information on understanding how the Alibaba merchant rating system works.

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