Focus on Trademark Infringement Issues in E-commerce Sector: The State Administration for Market Regulation Seeks Public Opinion

The State Administration for Market Regulation is studying and drafting the "Provisions on Electronic Commerce Platforms Assisting in the Investigation of Trademark Infringement Cases," and is now open for public opinions. With the continuous expansion of e-commerce transactions in China, the issue of trademark infringement in the field of e-commerce is receiving increasing attention from enterprises and consumers. Market regulatory authorities continue to strengthen their efforts in investigating trademark infringement cases. In the first three quarters of this year, a total of 27,000 cases of intellectual property rights violations such as trademarks were investigated, involving a total amount of 468 million yuan, with 742 cases involving suspected criminal offenses transferred to judicial authorities. It has been found during enforcement that the issue of "ghost online stores" is prominent, with some infringing online stores having fake registration addresses and unreachable operators, becoming a difficult point for market regulatory authorities when investigating online infringement cases. The State Administration for Market Regulation published the "Provisions on Electronic Commerce Platforms Assisting in the Investigation of Trademark Infringement Cases," which clearly stipulate the specific measures that e-commerce platform operators can take to assist market regulatory authorities in investigating trademark infringement cases. Four key points are emphasized in the provisions: for cases where there is preliminary evidence indicating the existence of trademark infringement, market regulatory authorities can inform e-commerce platform operators to take legal measures to protect intellectual property rights. In cases where the address information of the online store operator is fake and cannot be contacted, market regulatory authorities should notify e-commerce platform operators. E-commerce platform operators should prominently mark the relevant shop and product information and notify the online store operators to provide accurate information and cooperate with market regulatory authorities in the investigation. For cases involving multiple regions, the jurisdiction and cooperation requirements of market regulatory authorities in each region are specified. It is emphasized that if e-commerce platform operators violate relevant provisions and provide convenient conditions for others to infringe on trademark exclusive rights, thereby assisting others in infringing on trademark exclusive rights, market regulatory authorities will investigate and prosecute them.