The US government has labeled China’s top search engine, Baidu (百度), and a popular e-commerce platform “notorious markets” linked to sales of pirated and fake goods.
The two companies were among 33 Web sites or public markets in China, Russia, India and other countries that the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said on Monday facilitate trade in music, clothing and other goods that are fake or unauthorized copies.
China is a leading source of fake and counterfeit goods despite repeated government crackdowns. Beijing launched its latest enforcement effort in October and says it hopes to achieve lasting results.
The USTR report said Baidu links to Web sites that sell pirated or counterfeit goods, while outside merchants use Taobao (淘寶), an e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group Ltd (阿里巴巴), to sell infringing items.
It said the list was not a legal finding but an effort to call attention to abuses and encourage governments to stop them.
The outlets cited “exemplify the problem of marketplaces dealing in infringing goods and helping to sustain global piracy and counterfeiting,” the report said. “The United States urges the responsible authorities to intensify efforts to combat piracy and counterfeiting in these and similar markets.”
The report said Taobao is making “significant efforts” to address piracy, but “still has a long way to go in order to resolve those problems.”
Alibaba said last month its chief executive and chief operating officers resigned to take responsibility after a probe found suppliers defrauded customers. It said 100 salespeople, out of a workforce of 14,000, allegedly involved in defrauding customers were fired.
In a written statement, an -Alibaba spokesman, John Spelich, said: “We appreciate the USTR’s acknowledgment of our ongoing efforts to work with brand owners in protecting their intellectual property rights and we will continue to work closely with brand owners and others to further enhance the level of trust and integrity in our online marketplaces for the benefit of all our stakeholders.”
Baidu declined to comment.
Other Web sites cited by the report include Canada-based IsoHunt, Russia-based Rutracker, China’s 91.com and Demonoid in Ukraine. It cited public markets in China, Ecuador, Paraguay, Indonesia, Ukraine, India and Argentina.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure