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Five simple tips: How MSMEs can avoid intellectual property rights violations
When selling and promoting products on e-commerce platforms, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) need to abide by existing laws and regulations.
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Tokopedia attempts to protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) across its ecosystem.
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hen selling and promoting products on e-commerce platforms, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) need to abide by existing laws and regulations. Even on digital platforms, they need to be aware not to violate certain rules to avoid running into legal troubles that may prevent them from flourishing.
Recently, one of the main concerns of the Industry Ministry is the increase in violations of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). According to the ministry’s site, IPRs are put in place to protect Intellectual Properties (IPs) or creations from the “human mind and intellectuality”. IPRs also recognize the time, effort and money sacrificed for the production of an IP.
Over time, we have seen various forms of IPR violations, from counterfeit products flooding e-commerce platforms at cheaper prices to brands plagiarizing other people’s designs. They often result in products being taken off a seller’s listing or even the shop being banned from the platform altogether.
In October last year, the Ministry of Industry began partnering with the Patent Office (DJKI) to avoid similar IP violations. As a first step, they joined hands with local e-commerce giant Tokopedia as the first marketplace in Indonesia to commit to the protection of IPRs.
Since then, Tokopedia has been actively “coaching” its 12 million merchants to protect them from unknowingly violating IPRs. These tips may seem simple, but are in fact crucial to help businesses grow without constant worry of de-platforming.
Firstly, businesses must avoid selling counterfeit or pirated products. Business owners, including IP holders, are encouraged to join the Tokopedia Brand Alliance Program to strengthen the protection of their IPRs while fighting against counterfeiting and piracy.
Aside from allowing merchants to report IPR violations of their own products, the Brand Alliance Program features a dashboard that enables them to monitor the reviewing process of submitted reports. If found to be counterfeit, reported products are immediately taken down from the platform in record time.
With the Brand Alliance Program, business owners can now utilize an array of features that help them analyze reports and be part of a healthy and constructive discussion about IPR with Tokopedia and its diverse community of merchants.
Another way to avoid IPR infringement is by using original photos of products or brands. Resellers should check that brands that they stock allow the use of product images from official websites or other sources.
Similarly, merchants must steer clear of copying product descriptions from other merchants or creators. Additionally, when naming their products, merchants must ensure that they are not imitating other shops. Not only is this in accordance with IPR laws, it also helps boost their SEO rankings in the e-commerce search engine.
By taking the measures above, merchants will enable deeper trust from customers who want to shop safely and securely. Marketplaces must also consistently review sellers (even official stores) starting from their account registration and product listing. Now, they have been proactively blocking products that are found to violate their terms and flagging down cases that require further investigation.
“It is very important for business to comply with rules and regulations related to IPR and avoid product deletion, sales ban and swift moderation from [the marketplace],” said assistant vice president of Risk Management of Tokopedia, Bagas Dhanurendra.
Recently, the platform has been recording a 250-percent increase in the number of merchants that undergo moderation due to IPR violations. At the same time, firm actions to handle IPR violation reports have also multiplied by five.
Business actors, especially IP holders, can actively take a part by reporting cases to Tokopedia’s IPR Reporting Portal. “At Tokopedia, almost 100 percent of reports are reviewed and managed successfully,” Bagas assured.
But most importantly, every seller must be aware of IPR regulations before opening shop on a platform and starting to sell their products. “In order to buy and sell products safely without violating IPR, business owners can access our Seller Education Center to learn more about intellectual property and their rights, as well as the consequences that follow if they are found committing IPR infringement,” Bagas concluded.
