Act on an infringement notice in time, and restore the content if there is no follow-up within 15 days after you forward the statement

If someone sends an infringement notice and attaches preliminary evidence, you delete the thing, block it, or cut the link in time, and you forward the notice to the seller at the same time. If you drag and do not handle it, you and the seller pay together for the extra part of the loss. After the seller objects, you forward the objection to the other side and wait 15 days. If the other side has neither complained nor sued, you put the thing back.

Cost

It costs nothing. You need a fixed process: receive the notice, forward it to the seller, receive the seller's objection, and make the result public. Keep a record of every step.

Benefit

The rights holder "has the right to notify the e-commerce platform operator to take necessary measures such as deletion, blocking, disconnecting a link, and ending the transaction and the service. The notice shall include preliminary evidence that infringement is made out." The rights holder is the owner of a right such as a trademark, a copyright, or a patent. Sending 1 sentence does not count. Preliminary evidence has to be attached. After the platform receives the notice, it "shall take the necessary measures in time, and forward that notice to the operator on the platform. If it does not take the necessary measures in time, it bears joint and several liability with the operator on the platform for the enlarged part of the harm." If you drag and do not handle it, you and the seller pay together for the extra part of the loss. After the seller objects, the platform "shall promptly end the measures it took if, within 15 days after the forwarded statement reaches the intellectual-property rights holder, it has not received notice that the rights holder has complained or sued." That means you forward the seller's objection to the rights holder and wait 15 days. If the other side has neither complained nor sued, you restore what was deleted or taken down. If the platform knows, or ought to know, of infringement and does not handle it, it bears joint and several liability with the infringer. The intellectual-property department can also order you to correct within a time limit. If you do not correct in time, the fine is 50000 to 500000 yuan, and in a serious case 500000 to 2000000 yuan. The other way around: "A person who maliciously sends a wrong notice and causes loss to an operator on the platform bears double the liability for compensation" (nationwide).

Notes

If you are not an e-commerce platform and you are only an ordinary website, follow the notice-and-takedown rule in the Civil Code. The difference is how long you wait after the other side objects. The E-commerce Law gives a clear 15 days. The Civil Code only writes "a reasonable period." Also, making public the notice you received, the seller's objection, and the result of what you did is an express requirement of Article 44 of the E-commerce Law. If the platform itself organizes uploads of pirated copies, or knows of infringement and still leaves it up, the rule of "delete it when the notice arrives" does not protect it. See section 9, item 24 (fan-translated comics, and reposted films and TV shows).

Sources · 2

1. 全国人大常委会 (2018). 电子商务法（第四十二、四十三、四十四、四十五、八十四条）. flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=2c909fdd678bf1790167…
2. 全国人大 (2020). 民法典（第一千一百九十五、一千一百九十六、一千一百九十七条）. court.gov.cn/zixun/xiangqing/233181.html