Enforcement Actions for Intellectual Property Rights Infringements Claims on Afrispress.com
Afrispress.com is committed to intellectual property protection and does not allow any authorized posting, selling or offering for sale of product that may infringe other parties’ intellectual property rights.
| Types of IPR Infringements | Types of Infringements | Penalty |
| Trademark Infringement | Serious violation: Unauthorized use of a mark on a product and/or on its packaging and/or other use as a trademark that is identical or very similar to the registered trademark. | Membership termination upon three violations. |
| General violation: Other circumstances of trademark infringement. | 1) No penalty point incurred for the first violation; 2) 6 penalty points incurred for each repeat violation; 3) 48 penalty points cumulatively incurred results in membership termination. | |
| Copyright Infringement | Copying, selling or offering for sale any products that use copyrighted materials without authorization, such as text, images, videos, music, software, will amount to copyright infringement. The detailed scenarios are shown as below (for further questions, please refer to FAQ): 1) the product or its packaging is pirated； 2) the physical product or its packaging includes unauthorized copyrighted content or images without being pirated； 3) Unauthorized use of image on the Product Detail Page； 4) Unauthorized use of text is on the Product Detail Page； | 1) No penalty point incurred for the first violation; 2) 6 penalty points incurred for each repeat violation; 3) 48 penalty points cumulatively incurred results in membership termination. |
| Patent Infringement | Serious violation: Design, utility model, and invention patent rights infringements, determined on a case-by-case basis. | Membership termination upon three violations. |
| General violation: Other circumstances of patent infringement. | 1) No penalty point incurred for the first violation; 2) 6 penalty points incurred for each repeat violation; 3) 48 penalty points cumulatively incurred results in membership termination. (Membership termination upon three violations in case of serious violation.) |
Refer to Rules for Enforcement Actions against Non-compliance for the standards of corresponding enforcement action (unless otherwise specified, the penalty points are cumulative on Afrispress.com).
Notes:
1.Applicable enforcement actions shall be imposed in accordance with the product listing status as at the time when the complaint filed by rights holder is received or when random check is being conducted.
2.All of general violations and copyright infringement including rights holders’ successful complaints by Afrispress.com within one day shall incur no more than 6 penalty points. General violations from trademark and patent infringement include circumstances where complaints are filed based on the same intellectual property right but no counter-notices are submitted by the seller within the specified time limit, or where the counter-notices submitted by the seller are rejected. Copyright infringement include circumstances where complaints are filed by the same copyright owner but no counter-notices are submitted by the seller within the specified time limit, or where the counter-notices submitted by the seller are rejected.
3.All complaints against general violations of trademark/patent based on the same intellectual property right and all copyright complaints from the same copyright owner received within 5 days upon the first complaint shall be counted as one complaint.
4.All of serious violations including rights owners’ successful complaints (which include circumstances where a complaint is filed but no counter-notice is submitted by the seller within the specified time limit, or where the counter-notice submitted by the user is rejected) and random checks by Afrispress.com within 3 days shall be counted as one serious violation only.
5.For random check initiated by Afrispress.com random check, each infringement shall incur 2 penalty points to a maximum of 6 points per day. When the infringement is a serious one (including but not limited to sale of counterfeits in trade disputes), each infringement may incur 4 penalty points to a maximum of 12 points per day.
6. Afrispress.com has the right to impose penalties against violations and infringements conducted by sellers and take actions against sellers’, including but not limited to (i) rejection / removal of product listings; (ii) selling restrictions; (iii) suspension of accounts; and (iv) termination of accounts. For any terminated account, Afrispress.com has the right to take appropriate measures to prevent the account holder from registering Afrispress.com again.
7.Under certain extreme / conspicuous situations, Afrispress.com reserves the right to terminate membership agreement or service agreement, membership account and any and all accounts determined to be related to such an account by Afrispress.com unilaterally in its discretion and/or to implement other measures that Afrispress.com considers appropriate.
“Extreme / conspicuous situations” include but not limited to:
– Where repeat infringement acts committed by seller are considered as serious；
-Where litigation has already been initiated or legal demands have been requested by intellectual property rights holder against/to Afrispress.com；
-User being sued by intellectual property rights holder, or being investigated by judiciary, enforcement or administrative authorities with respect to suspected infringements；
-Requests from judiciary, enforcement or administrative authorities to terminate any account or take any relevant measures；
-Other circumstances that constitute serious violation (such as listing suspected infringing product under an incorrect product category, use of trademark variant, block of trademark from display or trademark free-riding etc.).
8.All violations shall be recorded for 365 days from the date of penalty imposed.
9. Afrispress.com reserves the rights of final interpretation and decision and all relevant rights thereof.
10. Afrispress.com reserves the right to amend these rules due to amendments to laws and regulations, changes in business environment or other reasons and will announce the same. The amended version of these rules will come into force as of the date specified in the announcement.
11.These rules are an integral part of the rules on Afrispress.com. In case of any inconsistency between these rules and the other rules on Afrispress.com, the rules in this document shall prevail. For any matters not covered herein, the other rules on Afrispress.com shall apply.
