International Law

IP Policies Abound for China Net Firms

By Stan

First it was Tudou announcing a new takedown policy (after it had been sued by a big group of IP owners), now we have Baidu putting a lovely-sounding anti-counterfeiting program together. I’m not going to criticize any of these guys. Whether they are motivated by fear or by more pure intentions, it’s a good thing.

This is why enforcement and litigation are good things. Scare the bejesus out of a few big players, force them to adopt mitigation strategies, and then perhaps the rest of the industry follows suit. Not bad.

Here are the details:

Youa.baidu.com, the Internet shopping platform launched by search engine Baidu.com, has announced the first batch of 15 stores that have been closed because they were selling counterfeit branded clothing.

This move is a part of Baidu’s special action called Spring Thunder, which will last from February 17 until March 31, 2009. During this period, Youa.baidu.com will publish the list of the punished sellers in its online forum each day. This special action targets sellers who violate the regulations of the platform and sell fake goods to consumers. Once the website gains proof about the selling of fake goods, the sellers will be listed on a credit blacklist and when the number or value of the sold fake goods accumulates to a certain amount, these sellers will be eliminated from Youa.baidu.com permanently.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).