The Alibaba group’s platforms represent the largest cluster of online marketplaces in the world and given that Alibaba offers a centralised brand protection platform, AliProtect, covering all its marketplaces, it is certainly one where all brand owners should be present.

To enforce through AliProtect, you will first have to register an account, providing basic information such as contact details. In order to begin enforcing, you will then have to register your IP, which can include trademarks, copyrights, registered designs, patents and utility models. You will need to provide scans of certificates for registered IP (evidence of authorised exemplars for copyright), as well as a scan of your business license (e.g. Certificate of Incorporation, Certificate of Good Standing, extract from the Commercial Register). Note that where IP rights are owned by diverse entities within a group, it is important that the names of the right holders must match with the business license and the account holder names involved. Where an external entity wishes to enforce on behalf of the registered right owner, a valid Power of Attorney is required. It should also be noted that on the Alibaba platforms targeting China specifically (in the Chinese language), IP registered or valid in China (e.g. WIPO TM registration extended to China) is required.

To report listings, you can either search directly with the AliProtect tool or copy paste URLs from the marketplaces in question; completing the report requires you to select the IP infringed from the selection of IP that you have registered. These reports will then be processed within a few days. Alibaba notifies sellers of IP infringement reports, and sellers have the possibility of giving counter-notifications. Alibaba will then decide whether the counter-notification is sufficiently persuasive. As there is little the brand owner can do after a counter-notification has been accepted, it is worth backing reports up with evidence.