Analysis on the Taobao Case分析.docVIP

Analysis on the Taobao Case Online infringement has, over the years, become one of the hottest topics in intellectual property protection. In June 2010, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued the Interim Measures for the Trading of Commodities and Services through the Internet, providing practical measures for strengthening its control over online trading. Later on, in December 2010, the Chinese Government launched an Anti-Counterfeiting campaign, with specific emphasis on the sale of fake goods on the Internet. In March 2011 the campaign was continued for three additional months. The campaign achieved some remarkable results, as all the relevant administrations were specially coordinating their efforts to crack down on online sellers. Yet, the real issue remained that filing complaints with platform operators against such online shops is endless, time consuming, costly, and is therefore an extremely frustrating effort on the part of the right holders. The only efficient action would be to involve the liability of the platform operators. However, such platform operators have succeeded, so far, to remain out of reach by claiming that they are doing everything in their power to delete illegal links whenever they receive a “take down notice”, and cannot do more. This was until the Shanghai 1st Intermediate People’s Court issued a final judgment on April 25, 2011, in a case between a Korean company and Taobao, the largest online platform operator. The Court ruled that Taobao knew or should have known that its client (an individual named Du Guofa) was selling counterfeit goods, and that it adopted no effective measure to end this illegal activity. This is the first time that an online shopping platform is found jointly liable with a counterfeiter. Needless to say that Taobao is reacting strongly. Facts E-Land Ltd. (E-Land), a Korean company, registered the trademarks No. 1326011 and No. 1545520 respectively in 1999 and 2001 on goods in Class 25 as