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A collaboration between Alibaba and a UK organisation set-up to help businesses succeed in China has resulted in more than £8 million ($12 million) worth of counterfeited UK products being removed from the website in the last year.
The figure was revealed yesterday, October 21, by the UK’s intellectual property minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe at the UK-China Symposium, an event which allows British and Chinese businesses to better understand how they can protect their IP.
Neville-Rolfe said: “The removal of £8 million of counterfeit UK goods will protect the livelihoods of some of our most innovative firms and the jobs of British people… I am pleased that the UK is collaborating closely with Alibaba to find constructive solutions.”
The agreement, between Alibaba and the China Britain Business Council, was signed in September 2014.
Under the agreement, 25 businesses, including multinational corporations, have successfully been able to remove counterfeit goods sold on Alibaba.
David Ho, senior legal counsel at Alibaba, said: “We are committed to the protection of IP rights and the long-running battle to eradicate counterfeit merchandise that may appear on our marketplaces.”
During the symposium Neville-Rolfe also launched a toolkit which she said will safeguard £65 million a year in “UK-China IP research innovation”.
“The UK-China Collaborative Research IP Toolkit will help non-IP experts to manage these risks and promote further collaboration between UK and Chinese institutions,” she added.
UK IPO, Alibaba, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, counterfeit, IP, David Ho, copyright, licensing, patent, trademark
