IPTango: Internet

Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts

Monday, 10 January 2022

[Guest Post] Mercado Libre’s second Transparency Report

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo January 10, 2022 No comments:

IPTango is pleased to publish a guest post by Francisco Burguete, discussing the second Transparency Report published by Mercado Libre.

Mercado Libre (MELI) published its second Transparency Report, which covers data from January to June 2021 and includes a new section on user information requests (see here IPTango post on MELI’s first Transparency Report).

MELI emphasized that in the second report, “the scope of information available to users, authorities and civil society organizations has been expanded[, and for] the first time, information requests from authorities that are processed in compliance with the law are shared”.

Now, the Transparency Report comprises four main sections: user information requests (section one), product security and quality (section two), protection of IP rights (section three), and privacy matters (section four).

Product security and quality (Section 02)

This section contains information about removed content because of violations of MELI’s Terms and Conditions (T&C), such as offering prohibited items on the platform (e.g., items violating IP rights):

267,461,670 listings were placed on MELI’s websites as of 30 June 2021 (compared to 331,607,978 listings in the first report).
8,815,828 listings were detected and moderated by MELI due to violation of its Listing and Prohibited Items Policies (compared to 18,570,436 in the previous reporting period).
53,173 listings were reported by users (compared to 112,424 in the previous report).
Top jurisdictions concerning detected listings regarding the violation of MELI’s Listing and Prohibited Items Policies:

Jurisdictions	Detected Listings (1^st report, as of 31 December 2020)	Detected Listings (2^nd report, as of 30 June 2021)
Brazil	13,283,854	4,013,453
Mexico	2,282,461	2,311,539
Colombia	1,371,060	1,240,494
Argentina	792,168	253,219
Chile	609,413	581,119
Uruguay	98,915	150,475
Peru	96,569	174,077
Rest of Latin America	35,996	91,452

Only 4.5% of detected listings were reactivated (compared to 3.12% of reactivated ads).

It should be noted that the second report contains the top main content infringing categories broken down per country. Meanwhile, the categories were classified only per product in the first report.

Protection of IP rights (Section 03)

In this section, MELI presents its Brand Protection Program (BPP), which “enable IPR holders to report infringing listings [via a Notice & Take Down -N&TD- procedure]”. MELI emphasized that they have developed “self-mapping tools, based on artificial intelligence, to “learn” from the notices received and proactively remove listings” that infringe IPRs.

969,413 N&TDs were submitted (compared to 2,107,264 in the previous reporting period).
56,432 counter-notices were submitted (compared to 104,661 in the first report).
The number of Proactive Detections and Confirmed Complaints:

Date	Proactive Detections	Confirmed Complaints
2021-1	1,322,070	159,409
2021-2	907,771	170,128
2021-3	1,558,342	206,285
2021-4	733,493	132,261
2021-5	760,860	117,082
2021-6	668,668	125,850

The English version of the second Transparency Report can be reviewed here. The Spanish version is available here.

In the past, IPTango interviewed Juan Cichero (Head of Brand Protection at MELI), who conversed about BPP, the N&TD procedure, and more. Read here the interview.

Credit: Image by athree23 from Pixabay.

Mercado Libre published its first Transparency Report

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo June 24, 2021 No comments:

On 19 May 2021, Mercado Libre (MELI) published its first Transparency Report. MELI stated that the report’s purpose is “to make our policies and actions transparent to safeguard the security and privacy of over 74 million users in our entire regional ecosystem”.

The Transparency Report consists of three main sections: product security and quality, protection of IP rights, and privacy matters. Read below some highlights of the report!

Section: Product security and quality

This section contains stats about removed content due to violations of MELI’s Terms and Conditions (T&C), which inter alia, prohibit certain items are sold on the platform (e.g., medicines, counterfeit items and other goods violating IP rights):

331,607,978 listings were placed on the 18 MELI's websites as of 31 December 2020.
18,570,436 listings were detected and moderated by MELI due to violation of its Listing and Prohibited Items Policies.
112,424 listings were reported by users.
65,180 listings were removed due to COVID-19 related matters.
Top 10 product categories regarding removed listings due to violation of MELI’s Listing and Prohibited Items Policies:

Product Category	Removed Listings
Courses	7,036,318
Medicine, health and/or beauty substances and products	1,386,243
E-books	1,337,862
Digital accounts & contents	1,278,420
Adult products	844,061
Personal databases	611,122
Decoders, antennas & signals	433,865
Personal documents	230,757
Tobacco & alike	215,817
Products & financial services	126,428

Top jurisdictions concerning detected listings due to violation of MELI’s Listing and Prohibited Items Policies:

Jurisdictions	Detected Listings
Brazil	13,283,854
Mexico	2,282,461
Colombia	1,371,060
Argentina	792,168
Chile	609,413
Uruguay	98,915
Peru	96,569
Rest of Latin America	35,996

In the report is highlighted that MELI uses machine learning technologies to detect infringing listings. In this sense, only 3.12% of the detected listings went back to the platform (reactivated ads).

Section: Protection of IP rights

This section contains stats regarding MELI’s Brand Protection Program (BPP), which “enable IPR holders to report infringing listings [via a Notice & Take Down -N&TD- procedure] in any of the 18 countries where Mercado Libre operates”.

2,107,264 N&TDs were submitted.
104,661 counter-notices were submitted.
The number of confirmed and not confirmed N&TDs:

Date	Confirmed N&TD	Not confirmed N&TD
2020-7	580,164	57,589
2020-8	396,225	46,558
2020-9	285,462	48,326
2020-10	333,046	26,757
2020-11	198,232	24,184
2020-12	92,568	23,035

Review the full Transparency Report here in English and here in Spanish.

Read here the interview IPTango held with Juan Cichero (Head of Brand Protection at MELI). Juan conversed about BPP, including the machine learning technologies used to detect infringing listings and the N&TD procedure.

Credit: Image is courtesy of Mercado Libre.

Peru: INDECOPI announced some results derived from the agreement to protect IPRs in the digital environment signed with Mercado Libre

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo March 14, 2021 No comments:

The Peruvian National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) announced some results derived from the agreement to protect IPRs in the digital environment signed with Mercado Libre (MELI).

As Juan Cichero (Head of Brand Protection at MELI) highlighted in the interview held with IPTango last year, the e-commerce platform “provided INDECOPI with [their] monitoring and reporting tool, but unfortunately, due to the … COVID-19 lockdown, some aspects of the joined efforts had to be delayed. However, [MELI trusted] that with the normalization of the INDECOPI procedures, the enforcement [would] resume”.

Indeed, the enforcement resumed in 2020. Thus, in a press release recently published, INDECOPI indicated that 265 listings were removed from Mercado Libre in light of the cooperation agreement with the platform. Out of these, 152 ads offered counterfeit products that posed a risk to consumers’ health and safety, such as electronic devices, masks, and toys. Meanwhile, 113 listings offered beverages with the protected appellation of origin “Pisco”.

In addition to this, as part of MELI´s proactive measures, 327 warnings were issued to brand owners, so they could review the ads and report the infringement of their IP rights when it was applicable.

Considering the results obtained, INDECOPI and MELI signed an addendum to extend the cooperation agreement for a further twelve months.

Read here the press release published by INDECOPI (in Spanish).

The interview IPTango held with Juan Cichero (Head of Brand Protection at Mercado Libre) is available here.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

WIPO PROOF ya está disponible en 10 idiomas

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo January 19, 2021 No comments:

Como fue anunciado aquí, la Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (OMPI) confirmó el año pasado que, su servicio en línea WIPO PROOF estaría disponible en 10 idiomas.

Inicialmente, WIPO PROOF se puso en funcionamiento sólo en idioma inglés, el 27 de mayo de 2020. Sin embargo, a partir del 23 de julio de 2020, también se podía acceder al servicio en español y francés.

Las 7 versiones restantes ya se han puesto en marcha, por lo que, actualmente WIPO PROOF está disponible en 10 idiomas: alemán, árabe, chino, coreano, español, francés, inglés, japonés, portugués y ruso.

WIPO PROOF produce evidencia a prueba de manipulaciones con respecto a la existencia de un archivo digital en un tiempo determinado. Se puede acceder al mismo a través del Portal de PI de la OMPI en la categoría "Evidencia Digital" y el sitio web dedicado a WIPO PROOF.

Recientemente, el servicio obtuvo certificaciones de prestador de servicios de confianza por el Instituto Europeo de Normas de Telecomunicación (ETSI) y la Organización Internacional de Normalización (ISO).

Consulta aquí mi reporte sobre el funcionamiento de WIPO PROOF.

Crédito: Imagen de Gerd Altmann en Pixabay.

Some IPTango moves

* Listed as one of the "Best blogs on Intellectual and Industrial Property Law". The University of Alicante Intellectual Property & Information Technology Project (UAIPIT).

* One of the only two Latin American blog listed in the "Top 100 Intellectual Property Blogs". Feedspot, as of May 2021.

* Listed as one of the "Top 15 Blogs For An Intellectual Property (IP) Enthusiasts". Buzzfeed.com, January 2017.

* Listed as one of the "World's Best IP Blogs". BananaIP.com, December 2015.

* IPTango founder Professor Jeremy Phillips was listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Listed as one of the "Influential intellectual property blawgs". A Dictionary of Intellectual Property Law, Peter Groves, 2011.

* Listed as one of the "Communities of Blawgers". Los blogs jurídicos y la web 2.0. para la difusión y la enseñanza del derecho, Gonzalo Ramírez Cleves, 2010.