NEW YORK August 15, 2013– The International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (“IACC”) and Taobao Marketplace (“Taobao”) signed an agreement Monday, creating a framework for collaboration to address sales of counterfeit goods online. The agreement comes after over a year of negotiations between the world’s largest anti-counterfeiting organization and China’s largest consumer-to-consumer marketplace.
“This partnership advances the interests of our member companies, of Taobao, and of consumers,” stated Bob Barchiesi, IACC President, “it’s a win, win, win.”
John Spelich, Vice President – International Corporate Affairs with the Alibaba Group, added, “Our goal at Taobao is to be synonymous in consumers’ minds with trust and value; this collaboration, and all of our efforts with intellectual property owners, are key components to achieving that goal.”
Taobao and the IACC began the discussions that led to today’s agreement in 2012, following calls from the Obama Administration for private-sector stakeholders to undertake voluntary efforts to address intellectual property theft on the Internet.
The new agreement also expands upon the successes seen in prior cross-industry cooperation between the IACC and the payment processing sector.
With the commencement of the program, the IACC and its participating members will assist Taobao with the identification of listings for infringing products offered for sale on the platform, and of repeat or high-volume infringers, which will be subject to expedited removal procedures. The parties will also collaborate to assist law enforcement with follow-up investigations and offline enforcement.
The IACC (www.iacc.org) is a Washington, DC-based not for profit organization representing the interests of companies concerned with trademark counterfeiting and the related theft of intellectual property. The members of the IACC include many of the world’s best known brands across all product sectors. The IACC is committed to working with government and industry partners in the United States and abroad to strengthen IP protection by encouraging improvements in the law and the allocation of greater political priority and resources, as well as by raising awareness regarding the range of harms caused by IP violations.
Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com), launched in 2003, is a popular consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online marketplace in China with more than 800 million product listings and more than 500 million registered users as of June 2012. It is one of the top 20 most visited websites in the world according to Alexa.
Taobao Marketplace is a business within Alibaba Group.
Source: International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition
