Is your brand dealing with counterfeits on Alibaba? Unfortunately, counterfeiters can damage your brand before you realize it. Someone who bought a fake can blame your brand for the negative experience, instead of the seller.
So if you find a fake, you’ll want to remove the counterfeit from Alibaba quickly and make sure it doesn’t come back. In this article, we’ll walk you through the process of Alibaba enforcement, including registering for the Alibaba IP Protection Platform, which we cover deeper in the second part of our Alibaba counterfeit guide. We’ll also talk about how to leverage AI brand protection tools to go beyond manual removals.
The good news is that you’ll only have to follow some of these steps once. When you already have a profile set up and have registered the IP with Alibaba, you’ll just need to collect infringing links and file infringement complaints.
Remove a counterfeit on Alibaba in 4 steps
Brands can report counterfeits on Alibaba by gathering documentation, enrolling in the IP (Intellectual Property) Protection Platform, uploading intellectual property rights, and filing complaints for infringing products.
Complaints have the potential to remove individual listings or even terminate accounts. This reporting system works well for brands dealing with just a few counterfeits, but keep in mind that a brand protection solution provides better results for dealing with many sellers. Let’s walk through the manual reporting process here.
Step 1: Gather documentation
It can be alarming and frustrating to find a fake product on Alibaba or Aliexpress. But don’t rush into filing an infringement complaint without the proper documentation. If you don’t supply the right information from your end, the complaint could be delayed or denied.
To remove fake products from Alibaba, you’ll need to provide a few pieces of information. Individuals will need to upload a copy of their national ID card or passport. A certificate of incorporation works to prove the identity of an organization.
Next, you’ll need to prove you or your company owns the IP, so make sure you have that ready before you set up a profile. That can include trademarks, copyrights, patents, and supporting documentation.
Finally, you’ll need to have links and screenshots ready to support your IP, copyright, or trademark infringement claims on Alibaba.
Step 2: Enroll in the Alibaba Group IP Protection Platform
Once you have the right information, the next step is to register an account with the Alibaba Group IP Protection Platform (which used to be called AliProtect). You can visit the homepage here.
To set up a profile, you’ll need to provide basic information on your company. You’ll then need to verify the identity of each rightsholder with ID cards, passports, or business certificates.
Step 3: Register your IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) within the platform
Once inside your profile on the Protection Platform, head to the left-hand icon called “My IPR.” You can then register your intellectual property rights with Alibaba. Register all corresponding documentation, including trademarks, patents, and copyrights. You’ll need to enter the following information:
- Place or region of intellectual property registration
- Type of IPR
- Validity period
- Registration certificate
It’s important to be as thorough in this step as possible. Different types of intellectual property rights will require different information and supporting documents. For a trademark, you’ll have to input the name, registration number, registrant, expiration date, class of goods, and the name of the related brand. You should also upload more documentation if the trademark has been renewed, assigned, or modified.
If an authorized agent is working on behalf of the company, they will also need to upload documents that support their identity, such as a power of attorney.
After you’ve uploaded the correct documentation, you can submit the IP registration for verification. You can track the status of registrations on Alibaba in “IPR Management” under My IPR. If registration is denied, you can investigate the reason and provide more documentation in that area.
Be aware that each trademark, copyright, or patent for each product requires individual verification. Alibaba usually takes up to three days to verify new accounts. A new account is only considered complete and ready for verification when it has documentation for at least one IPR owner and one IPR.
Step 4: Start reporting
Once verified, brands can start to file IP, trademark, or copyright complaints on infringing products on Alibaba and Aliexpress. Here are the steps for submitting an infringement complaint on Alibaba:
- Choose the Alibaba Group platform in which to enforce (Taobao, Tmall, 1688, Alibaba, AliExpress, Lazada, or Daraz)
- Select the corresponding IPR type and choose the related IPR in your account
- Decide on the enforcement type (“product listing” or “storefront” – the latter requires submission via email)
- Choose a reason for the enforcement
- Paste the infringing URLs
- Provide further evidence to support your claim
- Click submit
Alibaba’s counterfeit policy
Alibaba prohibits any listings that feature counterfeits or other unauthorized items, expressly saying on its website that it is committed to the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). Alibaba also conducts random searches of company profiles, checking product details, names, and any other information. If it suspects an infringement, the product listing will subsequently be rejected or deleted altogether.
Alibaba operates its own penalty points system that it hands out depending on the type and gravity of the infringement. In short, serious violations are treated as strikes, and having three strikes gets an account terminated. However, the strikes are reset after one year, so some sellers may relist infringing items after that time if they haven’t been suspended. There are also multiple levels of violation.
Trademark infringement and patent infringement have both serious violations and general violations. The seller needs to commit nine general violations to be terminated (the first isn’t counted against them), while three serious violations result in a termination. All copyright infringement violations are general violations on the platform. Here are some more details:
Trademark infringements
- A serious violation, where similar or identical trademarks to those of the registered trademark holder are used in an unauthorized manner on products and packaging, leads to membership termination after three violations.
- For other trademark complaints, no penalty points will be deducted for the first violation, but for subsequent violations, six points will be deducted until membership termination at 48 penalty points.
Copyright infringements
- The unauthorized publishing, reproduction, sale, or offer of copyrighted products will result in a warning for the first violation, but for subsequent violations, six points will be deducted until membership termination at 48 penalty points. Copyright infringements include selling products or packaging that is a reproduction of copyrighted materials, or the unauthorized use of copyrighted images on the Product Detail Page, for example.
Patent infringements
- Alibaba looks at these on a case-by-case basis. If the infringement is very serious, then three violations will be all it takes before the membership is removed.
- If the infringement is classed as “general,” this generally constitutes the sale or offer of products incorporating patented work through their design, invention, and so on. Similar to copyright and trademark infringements, the first violation will result in a warning, while the rest will receive six penalty points each until having 48 penalty points leads to membership termination.
What happens after you report an infringement
Under “Complaint submission,” you can click “Manage complaints” to view the status of each infringement complaint. The seller in question has some time to respond to the complaint. If the seller or storefront doesn’t reply to the original complaint within three days, Alibaba will automatically remove listings with fake or infringing products and uphold the complaint. When you work with Red Points, our team monitors the process of each infringement from start to finish.
It’s important to register for Alibaba’s Protection Platform with an email address that you or your company checks regularly. Sellers may respond to complaints with counter-notifications, and if you don’t accept or reject these in a timely manner, the takedown request will be dropped and the listing reinstated. And if you use our brand protection platform, we handle any communication or counter-notices from sellers.
How Red Points helps protect your brand against counterfeits
Monitoring Alibaba listings for fake products can quickly overwhelm brands as they grow. Red Points’ Intellectual Property Protection Software automates detection, validation, and unlimited takedown requests, so your team can focus on growth instead of crisis management.
Monitoring
Counterfeits can pop up at any time and on any marketplace. Instead of spending hours of manual effort, Red Points’ AI-powered Counterfeit Protection solution continuously scans global platforms, apps, and domains. We constantly look for threats, detecting them early so you can avoid harm to your brand.
You can keep an eye on updated statistics on your Red Points dashboard.
Detection
Our AI-driven detection combines image recognition and machine learning to spot lookalike products on Alibaba that misuse your trademarks. Alongside AI, experts provide oversight to validate infringements and train AI to improve accuracy.
In the image below, (1) demonstrates just how many counterfeit alerts and infringements can appear for one brand alone. This panel will also give you incidents to evaluate, while (2) analyzes the different platforms counterfeiters are using.
Validation & Prioritization
Set rules to automatically validate, prioritize, and route specific counterfeit cases. Red Points will also group results into categories, like tasks that you need to attend to (1), and high-risk incidents (2), so you can prioritize what you need to pay attention to.
Enforcement
Red Points automatically enforces your rights with unlimited takedown requests across marketplaces, social platforms, phishing sites, and apps, including Alibaba and all of its related platforms. Behind the scenes, we leverage our 10-year partnerships with leading platforms to provide priority escalation on complex cases.
Reporting
Easily review the economic impact of takedowns in your dashboard. Export reports to demonstrate ROI to stakeholders, uncover emerging risks, and guide brand-protection strategy at the executive level.
Next Steps: Protect your customers against counterfeiters with Red Points
To sum up, you can remove a counterfeit from Alibaba by gathering evidence, signing up for the Alibaba IP Protection Platform, registering your IP, and submitting a complaint. However, this process takes time and is only really effective if infringements are few.
Using a brand protection platform like Red Points lets you automate detection and submit unlimited takedowns across marketplaces, including Alibaba. Our AI-driven platform monitors for recurrences to remove sellers who would otherwise evade Alibaba’s three-strike rule, too. Ready to remove fake sellers on Alibaba and keep them from returning? Reach out for a quick demo today.
