Why Your Alibaba, Taobao and 1688 Takedowns Keep Failing (And the 15-Day Clock That Kills Them)

By Sophie Mao, PRC-qualified lawyer, Guangdong, updated October 2026

Quick answer. Alibaba runs two separate takedown systems, and the marketplace decides which one you need. Taobao, Tmall and 1688 sit on the Taobao and Tmall Group portal at ipp.taobao.com. That portal accepts only intellectual property registered in mainland China. Alibaba.com, AliExpress, Lazada and Miravia sit on the International portal at ipp.aidcgroup.net, and that one accepts foreign registrations. Filing costs nothing. Rights verification takes a few business days, and one submission can carry up to 300 listing URLs.

Three marketplaces, two portals

Foreign brands lose weeks here. They register an account, upload a European certificate, and then wait for a review that never comes. The complaint simply sits as ineligible.

The split happened in 2024

Alibaba separated its enforcement systems into two businesses. The Taobao and Tmall Group portal covers mainland consumer and wholesale marketplaces. Cross-border sites went to the International portal.

Old guides still send people to the wrong one. Until recently, every tutorial pointed to ipp.alibabagroup.com. That address now redirects to the Group portal. I tested it on 29 October 2026 and got a 302 to ipp.taobao.com. A brand that follows an old tutorial therefore lands in the domestic system holding a foreign certificate.

Each portal applies the law of its own market

This is not bureaucracy. Trademark rights are territorial. A Chinese platform sells into China, so it enforces Chinese registrations. A cross-border platform sells into many countries, so it accepts the registrations those countries grant.

Alibaba states the policy plainly: domestic platforms accept notices based on Chinese rights, and international platforms accept notices based on international rights.

Which right you need, and what to prepare

Check the table before you spend an afternoon on documents.

Marketplace	Portal	Rights accepted	Who handles the complaint
Taobao	ipp.taobao.com	Mainland China registration only	Taobao and Tmall Group
Tmall, Tmall Global	ipp.taobao.com	Mainland China registration only	Taobao and Tmall Group
1688	ipp.taobao.com	Mainland China registration only	Taobao and Tmall Group
Alibaba.com	ipp.aidcgroup.net	Foreign or Chinese registration	Alibaba International
AliExpress, Lazada, Miravia	ipp.aidcgroup.net	Foreign or Chinese registration	Alibaba International

A Chinese registration is the entry ticket for 1688

This surprises brands that already hold a US or EU mark. They own a valid right, so they assume they can enforce it. On 1688 they cannot, because the portal will not let them select an unverified right.

The portal states the rule in its own help text. You can choose a trademark only after you hold a mainland China registration for it and clear rights verification.

That single sentence explains most failed campaigns against Chinese factories. The factory keeps selling, and the brand concludes that platforms ignore foreign owners. In reality the brand never cleared the first gate.

If you do not yet hold a Chinese registration, read why Chinese registration comes first before you plan any enforcement. Registration takes eight to twelve months, so start it in parallel with everything else.

An unused registration also becomes a liability from 1 January 2027. Article 57 of the revised law adds a power the office never had: it may cancel a mark that has gone three years without use on its own initiative, without waiting for a third party to apply. The verb in the text is may, so this is a discretion rather than a promise of routine clean-up. But the direction is settled, and defensive filings now carry a risk they did not carry before. Keep invoices, listings and advertising records from the day you register. Here is what else changed.

What still works before your registration issues

A Chinese application takes eight to twelve months, and counterfeiters do not wait. Four routes remain open in the meantime.

Copyright complaints. The Group portal also accepts copyright notices, and original product photography often qualifies. Send the raw files with their creation dates, plus a statement of authorship.

The general report button. Every listing has a reporting link for counterfeit, prohibited or misdescribed goods. That route sits outside the intellectual property system, so it needs no certificate.

Unfair competition. Article 6 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law protects packaging and get-up that carries market recognition. You must evidence the recognition, so collect sales and advertising records early.

Your own supplier contract. Where the seller is a factory you once hired, the mould and tooling clause usually gives you the fastest lever. I explain that route in the supplier guide.

None of these replaces a registration. Each one, however, keeps pressure on while the application moves.

Documents that clear verification

Prepare four sets. Each one has a specific failure mode.

• Identity. A business licence for a company, or a passport for an individual. Scan the full page, not a cropped corner.
• The registration certificate. A colour copy or a clear photograph, showing the official red seal. Include the goods and services page for the classes you rely on.
• Chain documents. Upload the renewal, assignment or name-change certificate whenever the current owner differs from the name printed on the original certificate. A mismatch here is the most common rejection.
• Authority to act. A power of attorney if anyone other than the registered owner files. The portal provides a template, and it needs a company chop or a signature.

Evidence that survives review

An examiner compares your certificate with the listing, so give them the comparison. Capture the URL, the product title, the main image and the price. Add a side-by-side image that puts your product beside the suspect one.

Do not send a folder of screenshots without URLs. The portal validates links, and a dead link fails the whole batch.

Filing on the Taobao and Tmall Group portal

The workflow has six steps. Only the last one repeats for each new batch of listings.

Step 1: create the account and verify identity

Register with a company email address. Then upload the identity documents. Verification usually takes a few business days, and you cannot file anything until it clears.

Step 2: record the right once

Go to intellectual property management and add the trademark. Enter the number, the owner, the classes and the expiry date exactly as printed. Upload the certificate.

Once the portal approves that record, you reuse it for every future complaint. You do not resubmit the certificate each time.

Step 3: choose the listing, not the store

The form asks for a complaint type. Pick the product listing when the mark appears on a product, its title, its images or its description. Pick the store front only when the mark appears in the shop name or the shop decoration.

Brands often pick the wrong one and then wonder about a rejection. A store-name complaint cannot remove a product listing, and a product complaint cannot rename a shop.

Step 4: name the infringement precisely

The portal offers a dropdown of reasons. Each reason maps to a different legal test, such as an identical mark on identical goods, a confusingly similar mark, or a mark used without authorisation.

Read the short explanation attached to each option. Then pick the one your evidence actually supports. A weak reason wastes a filing, and a wrong reason invites a counter-notice.

Step 5: write reasoning an examiner can verify

This field decides the outcome more than any other. Do not write “this is our brand”. Instead, tie three things together in three sentences.

Name the right first. Then show the overlap. End with the conclusion.

Chinese registration No. 1234567 covers class 25. The listing uses the identical word mark on identical goods, namely cotton T-shirts. The seller holds no licence from the registrant.

That paragraph gives an examiner a checklist. It also gives the seller nothing to dispute.

Step 6: submit up to 300 URLs

Paste one URL per line. The portal accepts a maximum of 300 links in a single submission, and its verification button flags dead links before you submit.

File in batches by marketplace, so a rejection does not block unrelated listings.

Filing on the International portal

The sequence mirrors the domestic one, with three differences that matter.

First, you may select a foreign registration. Upload the certificate in its original language.

Second, the platform lets a seller respond within about three days. If nobody responds, the platform removes the listing automatically.

Third, the portal covers several marketplaces at once. Choose Alibaba.com, AliExpress, Lazada or Miravia before you add URLs, because the portal will not accept a listing from one site under another.

After you submit: the 15-day clock

Most brands check the dashboard once and move on. That habit costs them the takedown.

The seller gets a notice, and can answer it

Article 42 of the E-Commerce Law requires the platform to pass your notice to the seller. The seller may then file a counter-statement with its own preliminary evidence under Article 43.

The platform forwards that statement to you. At that moment a statutory clock starts.

Fifteen days, or the listing returns

Article 43 is explicit. If the platform receives no notice that you have complained to an authority or sued in court within 15 days of forwarding the statement, the platform must end the measures it took.

So the listing comes back. Not because the platform changed its mind, and not because your evidence was weak. It returns because nobody answered the clock.

Stage	Who acts	What happens
Account and rights verification	You, then the portal	A few business days, once only
Complaint review	The platform	The case record shows a deadline
Notice to seller	The platform	Seller may file a counter-statement
Counter-statement forwarded	The platform	Your 15-day clock starts
Your response	You	Complain to a competent authority, or sue, or lose the takedown
Repeat filings	You	New listings need new complaints

Answer the clock before it expires

Two options stop the clock. You can lodge a complaint with the market regulation bureau, or you can file a lawsuit. Both produce a document the platform accepts.

A polite email to the seller does not count. Neither does a fresh complaint about the same listing.

Penalties, strikes and why sellers return

A takedown removes a link. A penalty changes the economics for the seller, so read the rules to know what you have actually won.

Counterfeits run on three strikes

Taobao treats the sale of counterfeit goods as a serious violation. The first finding deletes the product. A serious case deducts 24 class C points, and an extremely serious case deducts 48.

Three counterfeit findings close the account. The count runs against the seller, not against one brand, so a shop that has already been found against other rights sits closer to closure than a clean one. Sellers know this, which is why many of them operate several shops at once.

Other trademark misuse runs on points

Wrongful use of another party’s right carries lighter deductions, starting at two class A points. The points escalate with repeat findings, and 48 points in the relevant class can close a shop.

One detail helps when you plan batches. The platform counts complaints about the same right against the same seller within three days as a single complaint. Spread filings across the month if you want each one to count.

Points expire, so does your advantage

Deductions roll off after about twelve months. A seller who survives the year returns with a clean record and a new listing.

That is why monitoring matters more than a single campaign. A quarterly sweep catches relisting before it regains ranking.

What the platform will not do

Alibaba publishes the exclusions, and they save everyone time.

• Price control. A complaint about selling below your MAP or MSRP will fail. The platform treats pricing as a commercial matter.
• Channel control. Unauthorised distribution is a contract question, not an infringement question.
• Prohibited goods. Report those through the listing’s own reporting button, not the intellectual property portal.

If your real problem is a distributor discounting your stock, the answer lies in your supply agreement.

When to escalate beyond the platform

A takedown is fast and cheap. It also leaves the factory running and the stock intact. Escalate when the volume is large or the seller ignores you.

Administrative complaint

File with the market regulation bureau at the seller’s registered address. The bureau can order a stop, seize goods and impose a fine. It also produces the document that stops the 15-day clock.

Bring Chinese translations, the certificate and evidence of sales volume. Bureaux prioritise cases where the harm is measurable. A bureau may fine up to five times the illegal turnover, or a flat RMB 250,000 where turnover cannot be calculated.

Civil litigation

A lawsuit buys what a takedown cannot: damages and a public judgment. Article 63 of the Trademark Law sets the sequence, from actual loss to infringing profit to a multiple of a reasonable royalty. Where the infringement is malicious and serious, the court may award one to five times the base figure.

Preserve evidence first. Notarised purchases and page captures carry weight; a folder of screenshots usually does not. A landmark case such as the Louis Vuitton ruling shows how a well-built record changes the outcome.

Customs and criminal referral

Record your mark with China Customs. Officers can then detain export shipments before they leave, which hits the factory rather than the shopfront. A recordal runs for ten years, or for the remaining term of the mark if that is shorter, and you must renew it within six months of expiry. I set out that route in the customs registration guide.

Where illegal turnover passes RMB 50,000, a criminal referral becomes realistic under Article 213 of the Criminal Law. Coordinate that step with the administrative file, because prosecutors read the bureau’s findings first.

Eight mistakes that get complaints rejected

1. Filing on the Group portal with a foreign certificate.
2. Using a Chinese application instead of a registration, since the portal needs the certificate.
3. Complaining about price or distribution.
4. Submitting screenshots without live URLs.
5. Writing a one-line reason with no comparison.
6. Filing against a store front to remove a product.
7. Ignoring the counter-statement until day 16.
8. Filing so broadly that a competitor calls it bad faith.

The last point carries real risk. Article 42 makes a malicious false notice liable for double the loss it causes, so a careless campaign can cost more than it recovers.

Pre-filing checklist

• Marketplace identified, portal matched.
• China registration valid for the classes you rely on.
• Certificate scanned in colour, with the seal visible.
• Chain documents uploaded where names differ.
• Power of attorney chopped, if an agent files.
• URLs captured in one batch, all live.
• Reasoning written in three sentences.
• Calendar set for day 10 of any counter-statement.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Chinese trademark to remove a Taobao listing?

Yes. The Group portal lets you select a trademark only after you hold a mainland China registration for it and clear verification.

Can I use my US or EU registration on Alibaba.com?

Yes. The International portal accepts foreign registrations. You cannot use the same foreign registration against Taobao, Tmall or 1688.

How long does a takedown take?

Verification takes a few business days and happens once. Review time varies by case, and the portal shows a deadline on each record. Plan for the 15-day counter-statement window after that.

Does Alibaba charge a fee to file?

No. Registration, verification and complaints are free. Lawyers, notaries and translators charge for their work.

What happens if the seller counter-notifies?

The platform forwards the statement to you and starts a 15-day clock. You must show that you filed with an authority or sued. Otherwise the platform ends the measures.

Can I remove a listing for selling below my retail price?

No. The platform excludes price and channel complaints. Those are contract issues between you and your distributor.

What if the same seller relists under a new shop?

File again. Penalties accumulate on the seller’s record, and three counterfeit findings within a year close the account. Monitoring catches relisting faster than a manual search.

Can a law firm file on my behalf?

Yes. Upload the owner’s identity documents and a power of attorney that clearly grants enforcement authority. The portal also needs the agent’s own identity documents.

Sources and review

This guide relies on Alibaba’s published intellectual property policy and portal help pages, the Taobao counterfeit and rights rules, and Articles 42 to 45 of the PRC E-Commerce Law. I checked the portal addresses on 29 October 2026.

If your listings sit on several marketplaces and the sellers keep returning, a structured enforcement plan costs less than repeated filings. See how we handle brand protection.