First of all, cross-border e-commerce involves several departments, including sellers, buyers, regulatory agencies such as customs inspection and quarantine, e-commerce service platforms, logistics and other service companies, national foreign trade management agencies, diplomatic and other deliberative and coordinating agencies, etc. Once a case of infringement of intellectual property rights occurs, who should take the initiative to protect intellectual property rights? In the case of cross-border e-commerce, is it the government, the enterprise, or the e-commerce platform? Perhaps, it is not too much for any of them to be responsible, and they can find practical and reasonable reasons. First of all, as far as the government is concerned, it does have the obligation to carry out such protection, because this is a work that requires a large initial investment and cannot be reported in detail. The government should effectively use taxpayers’ funds to make decisions on this public investment, and it can also use administrative and legislative powers to expand its influence. It seems reasonable for the government to do such a thing.
In addition, for enterprises, they develop and produce products, and they should be responsible for it, and should not sacrifice the interests of others to preserve their own rights and interests. They should establish agreements to safeguard the interests of each other. Only in this way can everyone’s interests be protected and each participant can be compensated for their own efforts. Therefore, the protection of intellectual property rights is the business of every enterprise.
E-commerce platforms are also an important participant in cross-border e-commerce and a force that cannot be underestimated. In a trade, they can position themselves as a service provider, providing services such as matchmaking, contract guarantees, and settlement of accounts and foreign exchange for the two companies; similarly, the platform can position itself as a manager, and can set up many departments like relevant national agencies, strictly control every process of the transaction, and be responsible for every business that passes through its platform. From this perspective, it is not an exaggeration to let e-commerce platforms bear the main responsibility for the protection of intellectual property rights in cross-border e-commerce.