ALIBABA AND THE 40,000 THIEVES

摘要

Be warned: Jack Ma, the man who oversees the world's largest online retailer and whom FORBES ranks as the 22nd most powerful person in the world, really doesn't like lawyers. Especially those attacking the very underpinnings of the $200 billion empire he's built. As rail-thin as ever, Ma almost leaps off the sofa in his Hangzhou office when talking about the fancy New York attorneys who have sued him for trademark infringement and trafficking in counterfeits on behalf of their client, Kering, the French luxury goods conglomerate that owns Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. There's no chance, he insists, of settling. "I would [rather] lose the case, lose the money," says Ma. "But we would gain our dignity and respect."