Intellectual Property and Alibaba.com

I found some cool information on the Alizila site, the blog that covers all things Alibaba.  Intellectual property is a huge issue between the United States and China right now and the post addresses the rights of small business owners who think that their products have been infringed upon.  Not only is the post interesting, but there is a cool slide show courtesy of Alibaba Australia. Have a look:

Small business owners usually can't afford to keep a high-powered law firm on retainer, but when their intellectual property has been hijacked, there are steps they can take to protect themselves, according to Alibaba.com. The B2B website, a global online marketplace for tens of thousands buyers and sellers, finds itself occasionally mediating cases where a small, creative company selling online discovers photos of its designs have been appropriated by another vendor.

Like all major online marketplaces, Alibaba.com has an established process by which content owners can assert their intellectual property (IP) rights.  AliProtect is the platform’s IP protection system.  It allows an individual rights owner to file a claim for an alleged IP infringement on the site.  As soon as the claim is verified, any illegitimate listings are immediately pulled down.  All visitors to the site can claim infringement, regardless of registration, via AliProtect. (For more information on Alibaba.com’s reporting policies and procedures, click here:

http://legal.alibaba.com/complaintRule_en_US.html) The platform also provides an email to address these concerns (pic-copy@service.alibaba.com).

Fast Facts on the Alibaba Fair Play Fund

Updated information from Alibaba.com on the Alibaba Fair Play Fund.  God stuff to know if you find yourself in a jam in which a dispute cannot be resolved.

FACTS:

Established in 2009, the Fair Play Fund initially covered fraud disputes between buyers and China-based Gold Suppliers. As of January 2011, the Fair Play Fund also covers claims filed against Global Gold Suppliers. Guidelines for Fair Play Fund: 1. To be eligible for the Fair Play Fund payout, claimants must have presented a substantiated complaint before the Gold Supplier was removed from the site. Please note that Gold Suppliers are only removed from Alibaba.com after a complaint has been investigated and substantiated. 2. Claimants with losses of US $1,400 or less are eligible for 70 percent of amount lost. Claimants with losses greater than US $1,400 will receive a maximum of US$1,000. Two-thirds of complainants lost less than US $1,000 to fraud. From January 2009 to March 2010, 715 complainants reported being defrauded by China Gold Suppliers and substantiated their claims, becoming the first group to benefit from the Fair Play Fund. After completing the application process, the complainants received a total of about US $400, 000 in reimbursements. As of December 2010, more than 2,000 complainants have benefitted from the Fair Play Fund and have received compensation totaling more than US $1,500,000. Like all other e-commerce B2B platforms, Alibaba.com acts as a marketplace and bears no financial or legal responsibility for transactions conducted between companies that connect outside our sourcing platform, but we do provide buyers and suppliers with assistance in compiling documentation and other evidence to resolve business differences, and when necessary, to pursue legal claims. Notwithstanding the new Fair Play Fund program, buyers still retain the right to pursue legal action against suppliers who don’t perform as expected and our assistance in those rare instances will continue to be available.

Avoiding Scams on Alibaba.com Through Fake Gold Suppliers

I took a little break for the holidays. Hope you all either used Alibaba safely or spent some some learning about how to avoid scams and fraud on the world's largest e-commerce platform. I'm picking up where I left off. Below, I've provided some information from Alibaba.com that relates to spotting a fake verified gold supplier. Again, with millions of users on a platform, if even .001 percent of the users are frauds, you may end up being scammed - and hopefully not have to resort to the Alibaba Fair Play Fund. Anyway, here are some good tips on how to spot fake Alibaba.com suppliers.

Fake Verified Gold Supplier 

Case Study:

I received an email from a supplier called Mike from a company named Happy Electronics Co. He told me he could supply PS3 at a low price. I searched on Alibaba.com and found he was a Gold Supplier, so I was confident about this transaction. I placed an order for 10 pieces of PS3.

After payment, I lost contact with him and didn’t receive any goods. I reported Happy Electronics Co. to the Alibaba.com Service Team. After an investigation, they told me that the person I contacted is not really an employee of Happy Electronics Co.; in fact, he is a scammer posing as a representative of the company. Below is the email I received:

Case Analysis:This is a case of Gold Supplier identity theft. Scammers will pretend to be representatives of legitimate companies with the intent of cheating unsuspecting buyers. Please be aware that you should always:

1. Ask the suppliers to provide you with their company website on Alibaba.com. You can also use the company name that they provide to do a simple search online. Once found, compare the contact info that they provide with the information published online. If it’s different, please be very cautious. You can also use TradeManager to contact companies listed on Alibaba.com. Ask them to verify that the person you are in contact with is actually their representative. 
2. Be extra cautious if the price quoted is extremely low (50% lower or more than the market price). For instance, the quotation in the case above seems very good: one PS3 costs only US$188 per piece and you get an extra one free if you buy 5 pieces. This deal sounds too good to be true because it is. 
3. Use Alipay as your preferred payment method when you want to buy from Chinese Gold Suppliers. Alipay is safe because your money will only be released to the supplier after you confirm satisfactory delivery. If disputes arise, Alibaba.com will help mediate. Learn more about Alipay. Western Union and other direct payment methods are risky, especially for your first transaction with a supplier.
4. Email the Alibaba.com Service Team for help verifying suppliers found on Alibaba.com.