Proactive counterfeit protection easily implemented without shaking business owner confidence - Alibaba example proves

Alibaba spearheads a new model for intellectual property protection The protection of intellectual property (IP) rights in today’s innovation-driven and increasingly knowledge-based global economy is an important consideration for policymakers and businesses around the world. IP protection has also become a central concern for online retailers, including the Alibaba Group which has had IP protection in its sights since it began operating. In an attempt to tackle the proliferation of counterfeit products more effectively, and the growing number of related complaints, many on-line retailers have set about building user-friendly, internal governance systems that support the protection of IP and their reputation as socially responsible corporate citizens. The Alibaba Group, for example, has, through experimentation, pioneered the development of an ever-more sophisticated and effective IP protection system. Using advanced computing technologies and big data, Alibaba’s Platform Governance Department has crafted and rolled out an effective system for spotting and disciplining offers involving counterfeit goods on its platforms. Alibaba’s governance model is built around proactive monitoring and an effective IP rights infringement notification system. The so-called Alibaba Model for IPR protection in e-commerce is governed by technology, innovative business practice and the law. Using technology to improve online governance Alibaba is harnessing various advanced technologies to tackle online counterfeiting and piracy. To identify counterfeit goods it uses fake product identification modelling, image recognition techniques, semantic recognition algorithms, product information databases, real-time interception systems and data collaboration platforms. Thanks to its algorithms, every day Alibaba identifies up to 600 million product images with an accuracy rate of 97.6 percent. Using these sophisticated technologies, over 97 percent of suspected infringing goods are removed from Alibaba platforms as soon as they are posted online. In 2017, twenty-seven times more goods were removed from Alibaba platforms using these technologies than were removed with takedown notices issued by IP rights holders.