The proliferation of counterfeit goods on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s e-commerce sites isn’t just a problem for consumers. Small businesses and entrepreneurs also have to worry.
In a February submission to the World Intellectual Property Organization, Alibaba said it spends more than $16 million each year fighting on protecting brand owners’ intellectual property. The e-commerce giant has 5,000 employees and volunteers handling such issues and has removed more than 100 million listings to products suspected of intellectual-property infringement, it said.
Alibaba.com sellers who post counterfeit goods or patent-infringing material could have their listings removed and accounts suspended, according to the site.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.