IPPro The Internet Issue 143

News Round-Up
Warburg Pincus sells ipan to
Castik Capital
Warburg Pincus has sold intellectual
property management service ipan Group to
Castik Capital.
Since its acquisition by Warburg Pincus in
2014, ipan has more than tripled its revenues.
Alibaba IP enforcement efforts saw ‘significant results in 2017’
Alibaba’s intellectual property we want to work with our stakeholders
enforcement efforts saw “significant
results in 2017”, according to the
ecommerce platform.
In its 2017 annual report on IP rights
protection, the company pointed to its
increased response times to takedown
requests, and an increased number
of brands and rights holders on its IP
Protection Platform as evidence of its
growing IP enforcement offering.
and continue to improve our IP rights
protection work and achieve more
breakthroughs in 2018.”
“Mutual trust and collaboration are
keys to the success of IP protection.
As an industry leader, Alibaba wants
to collaborate with all stakeholders—
whether they’re rights holders, agencies,
trade associations, law enforcement—
to keep leading the best practice in IP
protection,” she said.
The company also saw growth in
membership of its Alibaba Anti- Alibaba’s IP Rights Protection Summit
Counterfeiting Association.
saw more than 230 participants,
including brand owners, IP rights experts,
Speaking at the Alibaba IP Rights industry associations, government
Protection Summit in Seattle, the agencies and law enforcement.
ecommerce platform said it had seen
a 68 percent reduction in processing
time of takedown requests in 2017,
compared to 2016.
Speaking at the summit, Andrew Love,
head of brand security and global
investigations at Specialized Bicycles,
said that his company’s partnership with
It added that the number of notice
and takedown requests submitted by
Alibaba had seen significant strengthening
since it began eight years ago.
rights holders had declined 42 percent
year-over-year, even though registered
accounts on ALibaba’s IP Protection
Platform rose by 17 percent.
Some 97 percent of all proactive
takedowns were made before a single
sale occured.
He explained: “Alibaba really goes
above and beyond in our collaboration
in offline investigations.”
“We can bring what we know and Alibaba
can bring what they know through big
data, and that’s very powerful. Criminals
are not safe on Alibaba.”
Alibaba Group chief platform
governance officer, Jessie Zheng, He added: “There’s a triangle:
commented: “Today, we are pleased to
share the significant progress we made
over the past year, but more importantly,
government, brands, and Alibaba. If
three points of that triangle work
together, we can win.”
Earlier this year, ipan further expanded its
product offering by launching ip-x-change,
a new open platform for IP related Software
and Services.
Commenting on the sale, Max Fowinkel,
managing director at Warburg Pincus
International, said: “We are proud of the
transformative investments and significant
growth that ipan has achieved during our
ownership. As growth investors, we feel
privileged to have supported ipan in building
a leading provider of IP management services
and software and we wish the entire ipan
team continued success.”
Anton Bory, founder of ipan, added: “Warburg
Pincus has been a great partner and has
provided us with tremendous support on
our growth initiatives such as our strong
internationalisation, the three acquisitions
completed together and, most recently, the
launch of ip-x-change.”
Dr Jens Lütcke, CEO of ipan, concluded:
“Based on the investments made and the
strategic decisions taken together with Warburg
Pincus, ipan is strongly positioned to continue
its accelerated growth in the IP sector.”
Plain cigarette packaging leading to
increase in counterfeits, says TMA
Plain packaging on cigarettes has led to
an increase in consumer purchasing of
fake cigarettes in the UK, according to the
Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (TMA).
The TMA’s anti-illicit trade polls found that 24
percent of smokers said they were aware of
illicit tobacco in their local area, a 20 percent
increase on last year’s findings.
Some 53 percent of smokers agreed that
rising prices made them more likely to buy
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