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Enforcement Actions for Intellectual Property Right Infringement Claims

(Updated on April 8, 2015)

A. Intellectual Property Rights Infringement

Users of www.alibaba.com shall not be allowed to commit intellectual property rights infringement on the website. Types of infringements include:

General infringements include but not limited to:

（1）Unfair use of trademark rights or copyrights in product descriptions, store names or hyperlinks; or

（2）Unfair use of trademark rights, copyrights or patent rights on offer or sale of products; or

（3）Product descriptions or other information that confuse or mislead others.

Serious infringements include but not limited to:

（1）Offer or sale of printed matters, audio and visual recordings or software without permission of the copyright owner;or

（2）Offer or sale of products not authorized by the trademark owner or the licensee.

B. Penalty of Intellectual Property Rights Infringement

1. General infringement:

Typeof listing removal	Calculation of penalty points
Image copyright complaint	6 penalty points incurred per infringement Note： All complaints received within 5 days after the first complaint shall be counted as one infringement. No penalty point shall be incurred. Subsequent complaints received from the sixth day shall incur 6 penalty points per infringement. Multiple complaints submitted within a day shall be counted as one infringement. The clock shall start counting as the case of complaint closes.
Complaint by IPR owner	6 penalty points incurred per infringement Note: All complaints based on the same intellectual property right received from a complainant within 5 days after the first complaint shall be counted as one infringement. No penalty point shall be incurred. Subsequent complaints received from the sixth day shall incur 6 penalty points per infringement. Multiple complaints based on the same intellectual property right submitted within a day shall be counted as one infringement. The relevant time of a complaint shall be the time when the complaint is processed.
Listings removed by platform on random check	Each listing removed shall incur 0.2 penalty point (maximum of 6 points per day), whereas each listing shall incur 2 penalty points (maximum of 12 points per day) for any serious situtation.

Corresponding penalty:

Penalty points cumulatively incurred	Enforcement actions	Remarks
6 points	Issuance of severe warning	Email notification
12 points	Blocking of search results and mini-site for 7 days	Email notification and automatic enforcement of penalty by system
24 points	Blocking of search results and mini-site for 14 days
36 points	Blocking of search results and mini-site for 21 days
48 points	Termination of membership	Not applicable
Note: a) In case of extremely serious non-compliance, Alibaba.com has the right to immediately terminate the agreement unilaterally and close the account without refunding service fees for the remaining period, and also has the right to announce the same on Alibaba.com and/or other media, impose associated penalties and/or permanent refusal of cooperation and other enforcement actions. b） Where the cumulative penalty points of a user reach 24 points or above, Alibaba.com has the right to refuse or restrict such user’s participation in various promotions and marketing activities on Alibaba.com or to use the products/services. c) Points are cumulatively calculated on a yearly basis, which means that all penalty points are on record for a 365-day period, except where enforcement action of closing the account has been imposed.

2．Serious infringement:

Cumulative number of infringement complaints	Penalty
First infringement complained by a rights holder based on an intellectual property. All complaints shall be counted as the first infringement within the first five days regardless of the number of complaints.	Warning
Second infringement complained by an identical rights holder based on an identical intellectual property.	blocking of search results and mini-site for 7 days
Third infringement complained by an identical rights holder based on an identical intellectual property.	a) Blocking of search results and mini-site for 14 days, or b) Account termination (applicable where the member has been complained by an identical rights holder based on an identical intellectual property)
Fourth infringement complained by an identical rights holder based on an identical intellectual property.	Account termination
Notes: 1. The term “complaint” here refers to “successful complaint”, including situations where no counter notice is raised by the member within the specified time limit or where any counter notice raised is not successful. 2. Every time a member has received a complaint shall be required to pass the Intellectual Property Rights Tutorial and Examination. 3. Multiple complaints based on a single intellectual property within a day shall be counted as one serious infringement. The relevant time shall be the time when a complaint is processed. 4. The number of serious infringements shall be recorded on a rolling basis for a 365-day period. 5. Alibaba.com reserves the right to terminate service agreement unilaterally and to terminate membership account should a member is found committed in extremely serious infringement.

Remarks:

1. How the penalty incurred before the effective date of this new policy would be handled?

The penalty incurred for general infringement before the effective date of this new policy shall remain and continue to be accumulative, whereas the penalty incurred for serious infringement shall not be accumulated into the system of the new policy.

2. Will there be chance of appeal upon receiving a repeated infringement complaint?

We will send out notification immediately after an infringement complaint is lodged against our member, who shall be required to pass the tutorial before products can be listed again. The member shall respond to the complaint immediately – raise a counter notice if infringement is disagreed or else voluntarily clean up all infringing product listings.