Alibaba increases anti-counterfeiting staff

New York - Alibaba has announced they will be adding 200 employees to help aid in their efforts against counterfeiting. The company's newly appointed chief platform governing officer Zheng Jungfend kept reiterating in a press conference that counterfeit products are "tumors of society."

Alibaba Group currently has plans for data technology to be used to trace and report the source of fake products. To date, they have invested 154 million dollars in their efforts to end the sale of counterfeit products on their platform.

A week ago, the company hired Matthew Bassiur, formerly of drug group Pfizer and Apple Inc., to head their intellectual property enforcement. Two weeks ago, the U.S. government issued a warning to Alibaba Group and their Taobao e-commerce platform regarding the excessive amount of counterfeit products being sold.

The U.S. Trade Representative Office said in a report that they are becoming "increasingly concerned by rights holders’ reports that Alibaba Group’s enforcement program is too slow, difficult to use and lacks transparency.”

With the increase in anti-counterfeiting staff, Alibaba and Taobao will hopefully be able to avoid being relisted on the USTR's "Notorious Markets" watch list. The aforementioned watch list names companies who perpetuate intellectual property infringing markets.