4 mins

How to report a counterfeit on Taobao

Red Points would like to introduce our simple guide on how to report counterfeits listed on Taobao, TMall and TMall Global.

The Alibaba group has come into problems in recent years with the number of counterfeits on the site, with Taobao being placed on the US. Trade Representative’s list of notorious markets. With this in mind, Red Points has created this small guide to removing fake or replica items from the site.

This guide aims to be a quick overview of the process you will need to follow in order to enforce your intellectual property rights on Taobao, Tmall and Tmall Global. To make this process easier, please read through this guide, take note of what you’ll need, and prepare your documents, paperwork and anything else you will need prior to starting the removal process.

Step 1: Register an account

Taobao, TMall and TMall Global are in the same corporate group as Aliexpress, Alibaba and 1688.com. Much of the process is the same for each of these companies, but this guide focuses on the Taobao half of the group. So follow this link to create an account on Alibaba Group and move on to the next step.

Step 2: Submit your intellectual property to their registry

To remove a listing from these sites requires legally-recognised intellectual property (IP). If you don’t have these yet, or if they are still pending approval, then this guide can’t help you. You’ll want to register your IP as soon as possible.

Get your Taobao counterfeit removal kit here

Remember that these are Chinese companies, which makes IP registration and protection a little more complicated. That’s not to say your own government’s (if you’re outside of China) laws won’t protect you, they will. But, this process goes much more smoothly if you are able to register this information in China also, regardless if you or your own company even sells in China.

If you do have your IP registered, then submit the IP details to the Alibaba Group IP database here. Register each instance of IP that you want to protect (one at a time, sorry to say).

Here are the documents and the information you will be asked to submit for each type of IP:

Trademark

Trademark certificate
Trademark certificate pages for trademark classes

Copyright

Name of the work
Uploadable instances of the work and supporting certifications
Serial/Registration number of the work you submitted
Copyright holder of the work you submitted

Patent

Uploadable patent certificate
Type of patent (Patent for invention, Patent for design, Patent for utility model)
Name of the patent you submitted
Registration number of the patent you submitted
Rights holder of the patent you submitted
Expiration date of the patent you submitted

Others

Name and number of your IP
Right holder of the IP
Period of validity
Uploadable IP content, supporting documents

Step 3: Submit a complaint

The next step is to actually request a takedown of offending listings. Follow this link to get to the complaint page, which looks like the image below.

The Taobao websites require a specific reason for reporting IP infringement. Listed below are the different options, with the a short description of what each entails. For each type of report, up to 300 listings may be reported at once, so long as they’re the same type. If you’ve found listings that cover multiple types of infringement, then separate reports must be made.

So fill in every detail possible to maximise the likelihood the listings are removed successfully, then submit the takedown request.

TRADEMARK

Counterfeit
- Judicial or administrative decision
  Established by judicial or administrative adjudication to be a fake product
- Test buy
  The rights holder purchases the product and confirms it to be counterfeit or pirated
- This type or model does not exist
  This type or model of product has not been produced anywhere in the world by the rights holder or an authorized manufacturer
- Counterfeit features
  The rights holder determines from the product description or photos that the seller is selling counterfeits
- Counterfeit description
  Product page contains obvious counterfeit or pirated text or product description
- Seller claiming counterfeit on Trade Manager
  The seller has admitted through Trade Manager that the product is counterfeit
- Covering trademark
  Trademark is obscured to avoid counterfeit identification
Unfair/unauthorized use of other’s trademark
- Judicial or administrative decision
  Established by judicial or administrative adjudication to be an infringing product
- Free riding
  Product does not belong to the rights holder, but the seller has included the rights holder’s trademark in the product title or product description
- Unfair/Unauthorized use of other’s trademark
  The logo that appears on the product information page is exactly the same as the trademark of the reporting party. This does not include cases where the product name is used in a normal manner in the product description.
- Others
  Trademark infringement other than those described above

PATENT (invention or design)

Unfair/unauthorized use of other’s patent

Judicial or administrative decision
Established by judicial or administrative adjudication to be a patent infringement product
Non Judicial or administrative decision
The product does not belond to the rights holder, but is suspected of infringing on your appearance design/invention patent

COPYRIGHT

Pirated copy
- Judicial or administrative decision
  Established by judicial or administrative adjudication to be a pirate product
- Test buy
  The rights holder purchases the product and confirms it to be counterfeit or pirated
- This type or model does not exist
  This type or model of product has not been produced anywhere in the world by the rights holder or an authorized manufacturer
- Bootleg features
  The rights holder determines from the product description or photos that the seller is selling counterfeits
- Bootleg description
  Product page contains obvious counterfeit or pirated text or product description
- Seller claiming counterfeit on Trade Manager
  The seller has admitted through Trade Manager that the product is counterfeit or pirated
Unfair/unauthorized use of another form of Copyright
- Judicial or administrative decision
  Established by judicial or administrative adjudication to be an infringing product
- Image stealing
  The seller has used copyrighted images from the rights holder’s official website
- Embodying product of another
  Plug-in products that infringe on copyright
- Art, text product infringement
  Product does not belong to the rights holder, but the seller has included the rights holder’s art or text in the product or product description
- Others
  Copyright infringement other than those described above

Step 4: While you’re waiting

At the earliest, the listing will be removed in a few short hours. The person listing the counterfeit will have up to three days to respond to this request, after which time the item will be automatically removed by the platform.

Good Faith Platform

The Good Faith Program is Alibaba Group’s way of helping authentic brands protect their IP. Users who repeatedly make legitimate claims against unlawful sellers will be able to join this platform, and can expedite this entire process for future attempts.

Taobao and its affiliate sites are just the tip of the iceberg. Plenty of other ecommerce sites exist for them to sell their counterfeits. Follow our other guides to protect your brand there, too:

If this guide hasn’t been as helpful as you’d have liked, then please feel free to message us at marketing@redpoints.com, and we’ll be happy to help further!

In deeper trouble than this guide can help with?

Red Points are experts in protecting brands against IP infringers. Our job is to keep your designs, copyrights, patents and all types of IP safe. If you have found a few instances of your designs, copyrights, patents or any type of IP being infringed upon, there may be many more instances, hidden in other corners of the internet. Get in contact with us at info@redpoints.com and our free consultation can determine if you have counterfeits online.