Alibaba Responds To "Counterfeiting" Storm: "Shanzhai" Does Not Mean "Fake".

In April 27th,

The group issued the 2015 annual report on intellectual property protection of Alibaba (hereinafter referred to as the annual report), which is the second annual report on intellectual property protection issued by Ali since 2014.

It is worth noting that in this annual report, the first part of the annual report is to quote the definitive definition of "fake" in international and domestic areas to elaborate on "what is fake?" and clearly points out that inferior products and non genuine products are not equivalent to fakes.

The annual report emphasizes that the use of the concept of "non genuine products" does not only confuse the consumers' cognition, but also leads to misreading of public opinion, the reduction of social confidence in products, and even the improper understanding of Chinese made products internationally.

The annual report also appealed to the authority of the government and all sectors of society to define the problem of counterfeit goods in a scientific way so as to avoid the issue of non intellectual property rights being classified as fake and enlarge the proportion of counterfeit goods.

In recent years, what has been criticized as "cottage goods" and "counterfeit goods" is the same thing? How does Ali manage the rampant "Shanzhai" brands and commodities?

In the process of governing "Shanzhai", what are the difficulties faced by Ali? On these topics, the reporter of the Legal Daily held an exclusive interview with Li Xihan, the head of Alibaba platform commodity management center.

The law lacks a clear definition of "fake" and "Shanzhai".

Reporter: is "cottage goods" equivalent to "fake"? What is the difference between the two?

Li Xihan: Shanzhai is not a legal concept.

Many of the brands known as "Shanzhai" brands have been approved by the Business Bureau for registration. They have "legal status" and generally refer to Shanzhai as trademarks.

In practice, if a trademark or brand is infringed by the use of "similar trademark", it is necessary to confirm the decision of the authorized organ or the judicial organ.

Nowadays many people confuse "Shanzhai" with "fake", but in fact, there is no clear definition of fake and Shanzhai in national law at present.

According to people's cognition and business practice, the platform considers that there is a core difference between the "fake" and "Shanzhai" in the ordinary sense. "Fake" generally refers to the trademark infringement which is used on the same commodity without the permission of the right person, while the trademark in the Shanzhai is similar to the trademark, which may constitute consumer confusion.

Therefore, from the legal point of view, Shanzhai and fake goods can not be completely equated, and there are essential differences between them.

Many cottage brands are effective registered trademarks.

Reporter: what is the plight of the electronic business platform in the management of "Shanzhai" products? Why can't we clean up "Shanzhai goods" as soon as we clean up "fake goods"?

Li Xihan: Ali treats the "fake" as a zero tolerance attitude. In order to crack down on counterfeit goods, Ali started to study big data fraud 6 years ago, and hired senior executives to take charge of counterfeiting. Now, more than 2000 fake teams have been formed.

From April 2015 to September, Ali sent 717 clues to the law enforcement agencies to sell fake gangs, and 330 cases were filed by law enforcement agencies, and 279 cases were cracked.

During the period, Ali helped the police destroy more than 600 counterfeit warehouses, warehousing and selling dens, and arrested 715 suspects.

But for the "Shanzhai" products, the electronic business platform has many difficulties at present, and there are some difficulties in the law.

First of all, many brands are registered trademarks which are approved by the State Trademark Office. There are legal risks directly in the platform. However, these brands are likely to lead to confusion among consumers, which objectively leads to misunderstandings.

For example, the brand of "New York", "wonderflower", "Vance" and "Muji" are all regular brands approved by the State Trademark Office. However, in real consumption, it is easy to confuse consumers, and then complain about the sale of "mountain village goods" by electronic business platforms, or directly consider selling "fake goods".

Because there is no clear legal provision at present, this makes the platform of electronic commerce sandwiched between the state law and the people's consumption cognition contrary to "two sides are not human".

Secondly, many brands have been involved in many lawsuits between the confused brands and the big ones. The platform is hard to deal with consumers' queries after respect for and enforcement of judicial documents.

For example, there are both "Muji" flagship store and "MUJI MUJI official flagship store" on Tmall. Many consumers complained to the platform, originally wanted to buy MUJI, and bought the Chinese version of "Muji" and got the feeling of being cheated.

But in fact, China's "Muji" brand is a legitimate brand and has been confirmed by court decisions.

Platforms need to respect and enforce effective judgments, and they can not be retreated.

At present, we are trying to get consumers to notice the difference between "MUJI" and "consumers" in order to solve the problem of consumer confusion.

"Vance" is also a similar problem. Many consumers think that "Vance" is the vans brand of the United States, resulting in a large number of complaints about the platform.

In short, Ali is actively exploring ways and methods of "Shanzhai" governance for "Shanzhai" commodities.

Thousands of public judges participated in the screening of Shanzhai.

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Reporter: for the frequent "Shanzhai" brand on the electronic business platform, how can Tmall solve it? What are the specific measures and measures?

Li Xihan: to ensure that consumers have a good shopping experience and ensure the healthy development of Tmall.

In September 2015, Tmall quality control team launched the "big data + public review" of the "Ding Jun Shan" project.

The mode of operation of the project is that the trademark (commodity) suspected of being copycat is screened out by the big data model and will be pmitted to Taobao's "public assessors" to participate in the judgement.

Each trademark (commodity) captured by big data needs to be pushed to at least 800 to 1000 public judges.

The task of the assessors is to make a "yes" or "no" choice by observing the appearance and shape of the trade marks.

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If more than a certain percentage of the public assessors believe that the trademark (commodity) is confusing it, Tmall will initiate a series of governance mechanisms, such as the flagship store whose trademark is not renewed, the relevant products deleted and so on. In the future, it will also take different measures to deal with Shanzhai products by means of restricting loans and restricting activities.

Reporter: what achievements can Tmall share in cracking down on Shanzhai?

Li Xihan: through the "Ding Jun Shan", it did not renew the brand of Shanzhai last year, including: vans, crown Ttiumph, AF&LF, Adtass/, BUYBARLY, etc., and delisting or retreating 144 shops.

By the middle of April this year, "Ding Jun Shan" has launched 10811 "Shanzhai" discriminating missions overseas, which invested 216 thousand yuan in the appraisal fees, covering 1904 of the Amoy brands and covering 59 of the Amoy category.

This year, the budget of all "cottage" discrimination projects exceeds 2 million.

At the beginning of this year, Tmall's "Shanzhai" clearance has been extended from the brand end to the commodity terminal. In early April, Tmall controls and controls the counterfeit products of men's shoes, women's shoes and sports shoes, and actively protects the 7 major brands of NEW BALANCE, Nike, Adidas, VANS, CONVERSE, Skech and Asics/ Arthur.

In less than a month, a total of 5277 confusing products were identified and evaluated through public appraisal. Up to now, the number of online cottage products has fallen by 86.8%, and the foreground cleanliness has been greatly improved.

Handling Shanzhai requires administrative and judicial approval.

Reporter: what is the requirement for Tmall Taobao to enter the business? Why can "Shanzhai" brand enter?

Li Xihan: at present, Tmall has a set of strict standards for merchants to enter.

But as mentioned before, the "Shanzhai" brand itself is registered in the SAIC. From the entry elements and process audit, there is no problem with the "Shanzhai" brand.

Like the "Muji" brand, it entered the Tmall platform in January 2014. When examining the business qualification, it was a legitimate brand approved by the state. The platform did not have a reasonable reason to refuse it.

Application for entry.

However, when the brand is settled, it causes consumers' shopping confusion, and it is difficult to distinguish the difference between consumers and consumers.

Therefore, Tmall has optimized the search results from the technical level, so that consumers can find the brand products that they want to buy at the first time.

Reporter: in the brand management of Shanzhai, what are the problems Tmall is facing now?

Li Xihan: the "Ding Jun Shan" mechanism has been running for a period of time in Tmall, and has achieved certain results.

However, the mode of operation is still the innovation mode of platform self governance. In order to deal with the "cottage" brand and commodities, the administrative organs and judicial organs should be recognized.

If there is an active involvement of government departments, online and offline linkage, and administrative enforcement measures according to law, perhaps the mode of "Internet + administrative enforcement" can be formed, and the counterfeit behavior that has plagued consumers for a long time can be effectively curbed.

We hope to introduce an executable "electricity business law".

Reporter: for the platform to clean up "Shanzhai" can not be dependent on the situation, Ali and the market supervision department has held consultations? What is the attitude of the relevant regulatory authorities?

Li Xihan: when dealing with some cases and lawsuits that happened in the "cottage" brand, we had contacts with local businesses, courts and other departments, but honestly, there was not much contact, because "Shanzhai" brand management is still a very new field, and specific ways and methods are still being explored.

Generally speaking, the relevant regulatory authorities basically recognize our "Shanzhai" governance work, but as mentioned earlier, because it is a completely new field, they are also accumulating cases and experiences, not to mention support or opposition.

Reporter: in view of "Shanzhai" governance, what country does Ali want to speed up legislation?

Li Xihan: we hope that in view of the electricity supplier's online trading platform, which is different from offline business, the state can introduce a special "electricity business law" as soon as possible, and it should be enforceable in maintaining fairness and fairness.

For some new formats that are still developing, we can give some buffer time to enrich cases.

Take "Shanzhai" governance, as China and the world's largest electricity supplier platform, some governance experience of Ali can provide valuable cases and materials for the "electricity business law".

We also want to see that Ali's governance experience can be upgraded to national level policies and regulations, so as to safeguard the good development of China's electricity supplier industry.

But it takes time and multi - sector coordination.