Level Up with Weixin 2023: Maximising the Weixin Ecosystem to Protect Brands and Intellectual Property Rights

SINGAPORE,May 15,2023 -- Weixin,one of the most widely used communications and social platform in China,hosted the "Level Up with Weixin 2023" event today in Singapore in conjunction with the upcoming INTA's 2023 Annual Meeting Live+. The event outlined Weixin's latest progress in trademarks and intellectual property (IP) protection,and showcased how this can be accomplished by maximising Weixin's ecosystem.

Hanson Huang,Director of the Weixin Legal Center and Head of the Brand Protection Platform at Tencent,set the tone with an insightful opening remark. He shared his insights on IP protection practices,emphasizing on the importance of integration,innovation and efficiency. Weixin's brand protection system seamlessly combines legal principles with product thinking,fostering deep collaboration among multiple stakeholders,to address the diverse and rapidly evolving landscape of the industry.

At the event,Weixin introduced its Brand Protection Platform (BPP),which has been implemented as part of Weixin's ongoing efforts to combat infringement and strengthen enforcement on IP rights on Weixin,across key functions such as Channels,Official Accounts,and Mini Programs. The team showcased its mechanisms for detecting,deterring and dealing with instances of infringement on Weixin.

Members of the Weixin Legal team shared the positive results achieved in safeguarding brand owners and provided a glimpse of future goals.

Weixin's BPP has an innovative mechanism that empowers brand owners to track and verify potential counterfeiting and infringement activities reported by Weixin users. Upon receiving relevant evidence,Weixin takes decisive actions against the infringers.

Since its launch in 2015,over 500 brand owners from 26 countries and regions have joined BPP and been actively utilizing the platform to enforce their rights. Continuously adapting its policies and guidelines,Weixin's BPP serves as an important bridge between brand owners and legal authorities,facilitating online and offline enforcement to deter trademark infringement and counterfeiting.

In March 2023,Tencent published the "Weixin Brand Protection: 2022 Updates & Analytics" report,detailing the brand protection tools and measures employed,improvements and updates to BPP,as well as the results achieved in the past year.

2022 Enforcement Activity

As the Weixin platform features grew,so did the BPP program,new and enhanced functions have been added to target infringing videos,livestreams and other channel-based content. These actions,among other developments and improvements,are driving positive results. For example,brands now review 75 percent of user leads,a significant increase from 38 percent in 2020. Weixin confirmed approximately 90 percent of reports of infringement on Channels and took enforcement action. In addition,the Keyword Protection Program blocks close to 13,000 suspicious registrations per day.

Weixin remains dedicated to engaging stakeholders across the world,collaborating with hundreds of brands,trade associations,trademark protection service providers,and other intellectual property rights experts. Weixin team invites you to join us in the various discussions and to provide feedback and learn more about the Weixin Brand Protection Platform at INTA's 2023 Annual Meeting Live+ .

About Weixin

Launched inJanuary 2011,Weixin is one the most popular social platforms inChinaand empowers users in fun and dynamic ways,bringing together messaging,infotainment and payment in one seamless,interactive experience. Weixin provides a central point of control for users to create and share content as well as for merchants to engage with and grow their community through Channels,Moments,Mini Programs and Pay. As ofMarch 2023,the combined monthly active user number of Weixin and its international version WeChat exceeded 1.313 billion.