The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that its subsidiary public agency, the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association, signed a Memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Alibaba Group, China’s largest internet-based company, on April 23 in Hangzhou, China, to resolve the issue of counterfeit goods distribution in Chinese e-commerce.
Since its establishment in 1999, Alibaba has operated a variety of online markets, including Taobao. It is China’s largest e-commerce company and, as of 2012, has grown to encompass an annual revenue of KRW 180 trillion.
The current MOU includes agreements on a professional partnership to protect intellectual property (IP), establish cooperative measures for promoting IP protection, and plan joint IP protection campaigns.
The aforementioned cooperative measures for promoting IP protection specifically task the association—on behalf of Korean companies in general—with imparting to Alibaba critical intelligence on IP rights infringements so that it can more readily address the issue of illegal goods trafficking.
“KIPO will strive to provide policy support in these matters,” said Director-General Kwon Oh-jong of KIPO’s IP Protection and International Cooperation Bureau. “Signing this MOU was the first step in building an IPR protection system to benefit Korean companies doing e-commerce in foreign markets.”
(Source: KIPO)
