An intellectual property alliance formed by the Alibaba Group, a global platform for wholesale trade, has more than tripled in size since it was created in January 2017 with 30 members. At a gathering in Hangzhou, the Alibaba Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance (AACA) said its membership now totals 105 brands, including including Bose, Canada Goose, Honda, Samsung, Mars, Adobe, Danone, Hasbro and L’Oreal.

Promoting a healthy society
The AACA was founded as a partnership “to create a healthy society for the protection of intellectual property rights.”, with a membership representing companies from 12 industry categories and global top names. AACA promotes the use of the latest anti-counterfeiting technology to protect IP across its platforms, and members collaborate in six key areas including proactive online monitoring and protection, a product test-buy program, offline investigations and enforcement actions, industry-law enforcement workshops, litigation tactics, and public awareness campaigns. Alibaba has invested heavily in IPR protection for some 620 million monthly active users and 1.8 billion listings on its platforms.

Pursuing bad actors
A recent upgrade of its intellectual property protection portal has also been launched, where rights holders report suspect listings and share information with the company. Alibaba said its Good-Faith program, which is open to brands with a track record of accurate notice and take-down filings, had lessened its burden of proof for reporting suspected infringing listings. Matthew Bassiur, Alibaba’s Vice President and Head of Global IP Enforcement, said “The AACA enhances, among other things, our collective ability to identify and attack the sources of such illicit activity, as well as hold infringers both criminally and civilly liable for their actions,” said “These bad actors will understand the true costs of counterfeiting when they lose their illegal profits, have their physical assets seized and face imprisonment.”