In the Internet era, online sales have become the main sales route for various products due to its convenience, speed and variety of goods. Various e-commerce platforms cover all aspects of life and work needs, and their products are rich and diverse. It can be said that "only what is unexpected, nothing can't be bought". However, some products that may be sold on e-commerce platforms, as well as the pictures used in publicity, may or have infringed the intellectual property rights of others. The right holders obtain and fix evidence through online investigation and notarization as evidence of further legal action.
In practice, there are many means to protect intellectual property rights, such as litigation, administrative investigation and punishment, issuing warning letters, etc. There are also great differences in the time and money costs spent in different ways. Complaining against the infringer's plagiarism, sales and promise sales to the e-commerce platform, and requiring the e-commerce platform to delete links and remove products from the shelves is a very direct and effective way to protect rights. The Electronic Commerce Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated on January 1, 2019 clarifies the obligation of e-commerce platforms to cooperate with the obligee to protect intellectual property rights. Among them, Article 41 stipulates that e-commerce platform operators shall establish rules for the protection of intellectual property rights, strengthen cooperation with intellectual property rights holders, and protect intellectual property rights in accordance with the law. Article 42 stipulates that if the intellectual property right holder believes that his intellectual property rights have been infringed, he shall have the right to notify the operator of the e-commerce platform to take necessary measures such as deleting, blocking, disconnecting links, and terminating transactions and services. The notice shall include prima facie evidence constituting a violation. After receiving the notice, the operator of the e-commerce platform shall take the necessary measures in time and transmit the notice to the operator on the platform. If the necessary measures are not taken in time, the expanded part of the damage shall be jointly and severally liable with the operator on the platform. If the operator on the platform causes damage due to the error of notice, he shall bear civil liability in accordance with the law. If the error notice is maliciously issued, resulting in losses to the operator on the platform, he shall be doubled's liability for compensation. It can be seen that the promulgation of the Electronic Commerce Law provides a legal basis for defending rights through e-commerce platforms.
So, which intellectual property infringements can be complained to e-commerce platforms? How to carry out complaints from e-commerce platforms and how to protect their rights? These are the most important concerns of intellectual property rights holders. The author has participated in most of the complaints of e-commerce platforms and has rich experience in complaining and defending rights. Now I would like to share with you the complaints of commonly used e-commerce platforms. I hope it will be helpful to the right holders of intellectual property rights.
1. Entrance to intellectual property complaints accepted by e-commerce platforms
Most e-commerce platforms have intellectual property complaint portals, and most of the links are set in the title bar at the top or bottom of the home page. Alibaba has integrated all its e-commerce platforms and established the Alibaba Intellectual Property Protection Platform (https://ipp.alibabagroup.com/), as shown in Figure 1. The platform accepts unified intellectual property complaints about Taobao, Tmall, 1688, AliExpress, International Station and Yidatong. JD.com's "Website Navigation" title column has a Chinese rights protection management system (https://ipr.jd.com/edition), and JD.com is registered. Users can log in and file intellectual property infringement complaints; at the bottom of the homepage of Suning Tesco is the "Intellectual Property Report" column (https://ipp.suning.com/sips/propertyPerson/index.action) for the right holder. Make a complaint.
Figure 1 Alibaba Complaints Intellectual Property Protection Platform
2. Contents of intellectual property complaints on e-commerce platforms
Alibaba has published detailed rules and implementation rules for the intellectual property management of the platform, detailing those intellectual property rights that can be safeguarded through the platform, the complaint process, the complaint handling process and rules, and the processing cycle. It is the most perfect intellectual property complaint platform in China so far. However, intellectual property complaints on some platforms are relatively simple, such as Xiaohongshu's complaint platform. The right holder can only send the complaint information to the e-commerce platform in the mailbox provided by the platform, and the process and results of processing are not announced. They can only determine whether the complaint has been processed by checking the status of the link to the complaint.
The intellectual property complaints accepted by most e-commerce platform intellectual property complaint platforms include patents, trademarks and copyrights, and some of them involve unfair competition. Among them, patents include suspected infringement of invention patents, utility model patents and design patents; trademark infringement includes counterfeit trademarks, confusion and misidentification caused by improper use of trademarks; copyright infringement includes embezzlement of pictures, misappropriation of videos, text or artistic works.
3. Intellectual property complaint process of e-commerce platform
For most e-commerce intellectual property complaint platforms, there is a certain complaint process, which generally includes the following steps.
The first step is to provide the complainant's identity certificate, that is, register an account and provide the complainant's details. If it is an individual user, submit a photo or scanned copy of the ID card. If it is an enterprise, it needs to provide a business license, and if it is an agent who makes a complaint, you need to submit the agent's identity subject certificate and power of attorney.
In the second step, the obligee needs to upload his or her own certificate of rights to prove that his intellectual property rights are valid at the time of the complaint, or provide proof that pictures, videos and written works belong to his own creation. Generally, there is no need to repeat upload after the first upload. Figure 2 below shows the "Submit Intellectual Property Information" column in Alibaba's intellectual property complaint platform. Relevant proof of rights needs to be uploaded. The platform will review the relevant documents. After passing the review, you can file a complaint against the infringement link.
Figure 2 "Submit Intellectual Property Information" column in Alibaba's intellectual property complaint platform
The third step is to submit the suspected infringing link on the platform and the complaint of the complainant. For complaints of patent infringement, it is also necessary to submit an infringement comparison analysis table, that is, to compare the infringing products involved in the platform with the patent claim, indicating that the corresponding characteristics are the same or similar. Therefore, before filing a complaint involving patent rights, if the product information in the infringing website is relatively comprehensive, it can be directly compared; however, if the product information is not comprehensive, it is recommended to make a detailed comparison after purchasing the relevant products. The level of personnel responsible for handling intellectual property complaints at the back of the platform varies greatly, and the basis for judging whether it is infringed is sometimes unreasonable. However, according to our experience, a relatively detailed comparison will complain about the chances of success.
In the fourth step, Alibaba and JD.com will transfer the complaint materials to the suspected infringers, mostly sellers on the platform, requiring them to reply or complain within a 3-5-day time limit. The complaint includes reasons for non-infringement, such as the rights have expired, and the products use pictures, patents, etc. that have entered the public domain. The platform will also forward the complaint of the suspected infringer to the obligee.
In the fifth step, the platform will judge whether to take action based on the information submitted by both parties, take measures such as disconnecting or deleting links, blocking accounts, closing stores, store supervision, restricting delivery, restricting the release of goods, restricting website login, restricting the sending on-site letters, and supervision of the whole store or individual commodities according to the seriousness of the circumstances. The seller on the Alibaba platform has a deposit. If it is determined that it infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties, the platform will deduct points or even a certain deposit.
4. Cycle and effect of intellectual property complaints on e-commerce platforms
The intellectual property complaint processing cycle of each e-commerce platform will be slightly different, but most of them will be within 15 days, and the maximum will not exceed one month. Therefore, platform complaints are a relatively fast way to protect rights.
In addition, the repeated infringement of e-commerce platforms is very serious, that is, if the right holder complains successfully and the relevant links are disconnected or deleted, the seller will change a registered account to reopen the store or provide links to continue the sale. However, this disconnection treatment increases the time and economic costs of the infringer, affects its sales volume, and is still effective in combating infringement. In the process of filing complaints on behalf of customers, we have effectively deleted all suspected infringing links on the JD platform, and the relevant products have not reappeared on the platform.
Nowadays, the rise of e-commerce platforms has also increased significantly. Understanding how each platform should protect rights is a common sense that our intellectual property rights holders and intellectual property service personnel need to know. The author will continue to update and share the problems encountered and solutions encountered in the protection of Internet rights.
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