Alibaba releases anti-counterfeiting stats
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba provided law enforcement with 1,634 IP-related leads last year, contributing to the arrest of 1,953 criminal suspects.
In its 2018 annual report released yesterday, May 16, Alibaba said that its leads also contributed to the closure of 1,542 facilities involved in the manufacture and distribution of illicit goods.
By the end of 2018, Alibaba had filed 83 civil proceedings against sellers of counterfeits.
In January 2017, Alibaba launched the Alibaba Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance (AACA), in collaboration with brands including including Louis Vuitton, Samsung and Mars.
In 2018, the AACA grew from 30 founding members to 121 members, representing 16 countries from multiple regions around the world, with 76% of members based outside of China.
Alibaba said the growth not only reflects its commitment to collaboration with rights owners in the digital era, but also the increasing recognition by industry stakeholders of the AACA’s role as an “important and effective community for IP rights protection”.
Turning to its online platforms, Alibaba said that it had employed its “most sophisticated and comprehensive proactive detection technology to date, but found that fewer problematic listings existed for removal [than previously]”.
In 2018, the company began to analyse emotional and semantic patterns in the comment fields of listings, as well as negative consumer feedback to merchants as leads for further investigation.
Year-on-year, there were 67% fewer suspect listings identified for removal, and a 32% decline in takedown requests.
Last year, 96% of all takedown requests during business days were processed within 24 hours, while 96% of proactive removals occurred before a single sale, according to Alibaba.
Alibaba added: “Thanks to the combined efforts of Alibaba and other IP rights stakeholders, each of Alibaba’s major IP rights protection metrics showed marked improvement in 2018.”
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