Intellectual property infringement at electronic commerce platforms is a global problem, and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has reinforced the efforts worldwide to address this issue, said Zhao Tianwu, Director of the Electronic Intellectual Property Centre at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), when speaking at a symposium themed "IPR protection in E-commerce", which was organized by his department in Beijing on March 12.
When analyzing the current situation of online counterfeiting, Zhao pointed out that most shoddy commodities come from industries such as clothing and detergent & cosmetics. In 2011 alone, nearly 8 million pieces of clothing were detained by customs, 26% of the total seizures; 76% of the fake textiles or garment detained by the European and American customs at borders were found coming from China.
According to Zhao, difficulties in criminal identification and evidence collection, weak penalties in laws as well as other problems in anti-counterfeiting practice, such as a lack of coordination among different authorities, all contribute to the rampant expansion of copycats in online marketplaces.
To tackle these problems, Zhao proposed several suggestions, including strengthening punishment in legislative, administrative and judicial procedures, establishing an inter-departmental coordinating mechanism and promote publicity campaigns. [Chinese version is available on hexun.com]
(Source: IPR in China)
