News this week: The Alibaba
Group announced it has hired former general counsel of the U.S. Trade Representative Office (USTR), James
Mendenhall, to aid its discussions with the U.S. government and industry groups
over intellectual property rights protection.
In addition to the
hiring of James Mendenhall, Alibaba also contracted Washington lobbying firm
Duberstein Group last year.
Alibaba is currently
appealing to the U.S. Government to remove the company’s B2C e-commerce
platform, Taobao, from the
U.S.’s list of “notorious markets” for piracy. Over 30 online and physical
markets worldwide were identified in a report released by the USTR in December
2011.
Alibaba is also in talks
with U.S. industry groups such as the Recording Industry Association of America
and the Motion Picture Association of America regarding intellectual property
rights protection.
John Spelich, spokesman
for Alibaba Group, was quoted saying, “We are having good discussions. It’s an
exchange: here’s what we have done, here’s what we are working on, and let’s
get some feedback about the kind of thing you are interested in seeing.”
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