Nine ministerial administrations join hands in the crackdown upon IPR infringement and fake & shoddy commodities in online shopping

Complying with the deployment of the national leading group of the special campaign to crack down upon IPR infringement and manufacture and distribution of fake and shoddy commodities, nine ministerial administrations in China, including Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, the People's Bank of China,General Administration of Customs,the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Press and Publication (National Copyright Administration) and the State Intellectual Property Office, jointly issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the Action Plan to Combat IPR Infringement and Manufacture and Distribution of Fake and Shoddy Commodities in Online Shopping" (hereinafter referred to as "the Notice") on December 28, 2010 to expand the scope of the special campaign to cover this flourishing sector.

The actions taken aim to crack a series of IPR infringing cases in online shopping, strengthen the law-abiding consciousness of online store owners and help to create a good atmosphere where IP rights are always respected and counterfeit products are always boycotted.

The nine administrations will work closely with each other and divide the work up, trying to achieve substantive results in the campaign. The actions will focus on the protection of trademark, copyright and patent rights in the markets of news publication and nondurable consumer goods, especially on commodities such as books, audio-visual products, electric appliances, garments, cosmetics, food, medicine and mother & infant products. Efforts will be made to strictly curb and crack down upon IPR infringement in online stores.

Tasks of the actions have set down as follows:

(1) To reinforce the supervision over online shopping platforms: setting up an internal monitoring system and carefully taking care public complaints on IPR infringement; deleting relevant information and even closing down the stores in case fake and infringing commodities are found and verified.

(2) To enhance the supervision over online shop owners: preventing them from infringing others' trademarks, copyrights, patents and the exclusive rights over enterprises' names, prohibiting them from misleading customers about trademarks, places of origin and producers.

(3) To establish an access system for commodities to be traded online: requiring online shop owners or operators to provide customers all the necessary information before a deal is made, such as category, quantity, quality, price, freight rate, shipping method, payment instrument and refund & exchange policy concerning the product or service offered in the shops.

(4) To strengthen judicial enforcement for the protection of intellectual property rights.

(5) To guide consumers to choose branded, environment-friendly and healthy commodities and educate the public to respect intellectual property rights and inventions.

(6) To enhance IPR promulgation and to timely report the progress and achievements of the special campaign.

(7) To set up a permanent mechanism to protect intellectual property rights in online shopping by proposing new legislation accordingly.

The Notice requires provincial administrations on commercial affairs, communications, public security, customs, industry and commerce, quality supervision, news publication (copyright) and intellectual property to enhance leadership and propel public supervision so as to make steady progress in the campaign.

The actions to crack down upon IPR infringement and manufacture and sales of fake and shoddy commodities will be carried out in three stages: making deployment in December 2010, organizing and implementing the program in January and February 2011 and summarizing in March 2011.