Brand owners had the opportunity to learn about TikTok Shop’s intellectual property regulations and IP Protection Center (IPPC) during an IP Boot Camp hosted by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) recently. 

An IPOPHL effort called IP Boot Camp aims to give IP rights holders access to IP portals of ecommerce platforms that are primarily E-Commerce Memorandum of Understanding signatories. IP owners can also offer their thoughts at the information sessions on how these portals can be enhanced to better serve their requirements. 

“With TikTok Shop’s vast and fast-growing user base, an information session with them is key to helping brand owners and their legal teams have a tailored strategy in line with platforms’ specific IP framework and enforcement processes. This also allows TikTok Shop and brand owners to explore better ways of working hand in hand in combating counterfeits online,” said IP Rights Enforcement Office Supervising Director Christine V. Pangilinan-Canlapan. 

Over 325 million users visit TikTok each month in Southeast Asia, and 15 million companies use the platform.

According to James Cheah, Brand Cooperation Manager of TikTok’s E-commerce IP Rights Protection Team, TikTok Shop transformed ecommerce by fusing entertainment and shopping, generating “shoppertainment” that allows users to enjoy entertaining short-form content and live-streamed videos that impact their purchase decisions. 

But TikTok Shop also understands the bigger difficulties in giving vendors fresh and interesting methods to interact with customers outside of traditional marketing, which mostly uses written descriptions and photos in listings.

“This adds an extra dimension of monitoring with respect to protecting IP. This added dimension means we don’t just look into the individual products sold or keywords used. We also have to look into how their other content, including videos and live streams, might be using or misusing IP,” said Cheah.

TikTok Shop developed the IPPC, an integrated one-stop platform that gives rights holders the ability to safeguard and enforce their IP rights to address these issues. “We have invested significant resources, engineering resources, product resources to build up this portal and also build a strong specialist operations team to manage and run it,”  said Global E-Commerce IP Protection Operation Manager Zinia Ang.

TikTok Shop also urged IP owners on the platform to register for its IPPC. The IPPC has an IP Vault where all documents proving a company or individual’s IP ownership are. The IP Vault enables a broader worldwide search for monitoring and activates the product search feature in applicable jurisdictions.

Additionally, the IPPC offers a complaints management system designed to let rights holders know about, oversee and handle takedown requests in addition to keeping an eye on appeals.

Rights holders who join the IPPC get access to a faster take-down process that may be completed in as little as two working days, as opposed to TikTok’s more extensive monitoring system. Except in situations where there is a risk to the public’s health or other issues of national importance, the latter may take longer to respond to take-down requests since it investigates listings that violate the platform’s general community standards and norms.

TikTok Shop also provided details on helping brand owners outside the standard procedure of requesting a take-down of infringing listings. This includes working with brand owners in providing information on possible infringers who run and drive sales of counterfeit goods.

Cheah also shared that TikTok Shop has a Law Enforcement Response Team tasked with cooperating with authorities and supporting any requests made by law enforcement for assistance with the investigations, hence facilitating collaboration with investigative and enforcement agencies.

He added that TikTok Shop is also about to implement new policies that will allow its IPPC to increase the scope of its monitoring. He said that IP monitoring expenditures are essential to the platform because they guarantee IP rights protection and preserve consumer trust, influencing 70 percent of its users’ purchase decisions.

“That trust element is incredibly valuable to us as a platform. Maintaining strong integrity around IP protection is a core competence in maintaining that high degree of trust which… helps our users feel comfortable in making purchases when they’re buying authentic products and to make them feel happy to come back in the future,” said Cheah.

- Excel V. Dyquiangco