Chinese online retailer JD.com says it has opened up the system it deploys to allow brand owners to notify the company when vendors infringe their intellectual property.
The Hubaochui anti-counterfeit tools were previously only available to around 400 brands that had been invited to participate in the scheme, but are now open to all, according to the company.
The system uses algorithms to notify brands when infringing products are being sold by third-party merchants, for example when they engage in false advertising of a trademark or copyright. Previously, when brands identified a merchant selling fake products, they needed to submit an application to the company, and wait while staff verified the validity of the complaint.
The technology behind Hubaochui has also been upgraded in order to make it more efficient at identifying fake products, says JD.com in a statement.
"When any problems are found, merchants will need to provide related certificates to prove their rights to brand owners; otherwise JD will remove the products off its platform," says the retailer.
Bo Wang, head of rules and governance at JD’s platform business said: "The system upgrade aims to make it easier for brands and merchants to more actively and conveniently deal with IP issues, protecting their rights and better managing cost and effectiveness."
He addedz that the company "will also continue to cooperate with more professional IP protection institutions, promoting better governance for the whole industry."
First set up in 1998, JD.com claims to be China’s largest online retailer as well as the country’s biggest Internet company by revenue, and says it is the only retail company in China that has its own end-to-end logistics fulfilment business.
The company’s founder Richard Liu insists it takes strenuous efforts to try to keep counterfeits off its platform, saying it has a "zero tolerance" stance on intellectual property rights, and in the past has publicly criticised rivals including its Chinese peer Alibaba for their record on brand protection.
JD.com says it operates a "one strike and you're out" principle, banning sellers who are discovered to have traded in counterfeit goods for life.
Last year the company added to the automated takedown system with an anti-counterfeit blockchain tracing platform – dubbed JD Chain or Zhi Zhen Lian – which is now being used by more than 800 brand owners to protect around 70,000 different products.
It has also introduced an artificial intelligence platform called Heaven's Mirror to try to identify counterfeit listings based on images rather than trademark terms in text. The system also monitors customer service complaints to try to accelerate the detection of risky or substandard goods that may be fake.
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