On July 27, QBPC Internet Committee (IC) held the first Online Brand Protection Dialogue this year, which focused on brand protection & compliance of online shopping festivals. The meeting was chaired by IC Vice Chair Chen Yang. Practitioners in e-commerce brand protection and legislative experts in e-commerce field shared their views from different perspectives and conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions. More than 120 member representatives attended this event.
Chen Yang, Unliver
The speaker from the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation (AMR) introduced risks of frequent violations and law enforcement in the e-commerce shopping festivals. He said that Shanghai was promoting the construction of the business environment. As far as the IP protection of the e-commerce platform was concerned, the AMR continued to strengthen cooperation and exchange with the internet platforms as well as strengthening the supervision with platform, promoting the tripartite co-governance of law enforcement, platforms and right holders, actively creating a good e-commerce business environment. In IP cases, the prompt response from brand owners was a critical factor for successful enforcement on infringements. He expected QBPC IWGs to give full play to their professionalism and improve the identification efficiency from the perspective of industry co-governance.
Spring Liu, Duan & Duan Law Firm
Spring Liu gave a wonderful presentation on the first anti-counterfeiting case on e-commerce platforms and other cases. He said that the e-commerce law in China was the only one substantive law with e-commerce as the theme among the sovereign states in the world. He also explained the litigations encountered by e-commerce platforms, the changes in the system of e-commerce platforms, and how brand owners could monitor and leverage platform rules to fight counterfeiting, tort monitoring and early warning, forensics and fixed evidence, and how to apply a variety of approaches to protect rights.
Niklas Fu, Richemont
Niklas Fu discussed the ongoing changes in the online shopping festivals and the brand owners' solutions. He pointed out that from the perspective of brand monitoring, establishing processes and systems was very important. At present, the frequent promotion activities of various e-commerce platforms had extended the frontline of brand monitoring, so that the strategy adjustment of the brand was imperative. Niklas Fu also shared countermeasures against four problems, including mobile infringement, covert infringement, live broadcast and repeat infringement.
Yang Jianzheng, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology
Yang Jianzheng exchanged his views with QBPC members on solutions to prevent brand infringement. With the development of online shopping, trademark infringement existed in varying degrees, and fake and shoddy goods had also become a persistent problem in online shopping festivals. He explained the difference between the brand and trademark, the features of brand infringement in online shopping festivals. He also introduced the preventive measures, such as continuously organizing crackdown activities, formulating the judgment standards of trademark infringement, and increasing the responsibility of e-commerce platform on IP protection.
In the last session, Spring Liu, Yang Jianzheng, Fang Youming and Liu Kai had a dialogue on the legal issues of online shopping festivals and answered the questions raised by the attendees. Liu Kai said that no matter how business approaches changed, the compliance issue was at the core and needed to be ensured. At present, the Shanghai Private Enterprises Association was studying the "Circular of the General Office of the State Council on Matters Related to Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement of Market Supervision and Management", and required its member companies to check themselves and ensure compliance. While sharing a case of illegal brushing, Fang Youming pointed out that many lawsuits could be terminated with compliance, and the choice of litigation strategy would also directly affect the result of the lawsuit. Yang Jianzheng reviewed the process and experience of his research team's participation in the legislation of the E-commerce Law. Spring Liu discussed the description of the "corresponding responsibility" of the platform and the definition of "effective notification" in the E-commerce Law.
From left to right: Spring Liu, Yang Jianzheng, Fang Youming (TIAN YUAN Law Firm), Liu Kai (Shanghai Private Enterprise Association)
At the end of the meeting, Chen Yang expressed her gratitude to the speakers and attendees. She said that the speakers and audience had conducted in-depth exchanges and communication on the hot topic of e-commerce brand protection and compliance, which would help members to deeply understand the key points and difficulties in e-commerce anti-counterfeiting work as well as providing solutions and experience for reference at the same time. It would be beneficial to the daily online right protection work of the QBPC members.