In the integration trend, the registration of intellectual property (IP) has a great impact on Vietnamese enterprises. Therefore, the perception of society, enterprises and efforts of functional sectors to support enterprises in this field is an urgent demand.
Local authorities, businesses need to make more effort into the development of intellectual properties. In photo: Production of generators at Sang Ban Mai Joint Stock Company (Ben Cat Township).
Difficulties of enterprises
According to experts, IP brings practical benefits to enterprises, such as: Prevention of counterfeiting; avoid IP right infringements; access to new markets through franchising, joint ventures; protection of product improvements; mobilizing capital... At present, many enterprises are still quite confused about IP rights for their products. A recent sociological survey showed that up to 80% of SMEs did not understand the importance of IP. According to the data of IP department (Ministry of Science and Technology), during 2006-2016, the number of applications for IP registration of enterprises reached 104,275; On average, every year, the number of received applications increased from 10% to 15%. Compared with foreign countries, the volume of IP registration applications of Vietnam was still low, such as the patent field, Vietnamese applications only accounted for 9.5% of the total number of submitted applications to protect IP.
At recent workshops related to IP, many experts said that SMEs mostly were only interested in product development, investment capital, marketing planning, sales, and forgot about IP issues, protect their ideas, protect brand - which is a very important legal right. This situation has pushed domestic enterprises to face the risk of losing their trademark and being sued for infringements of other IP rights, especially in the trend of integration, counterfeit goods are now widespread. To businesses registered to trade on e-commerce platform, registration of IP in many countries is more important in product protection.
IP is a kind of intangible asset but very valuable for businesses. In major economies in the world, such as the US, Europe, Japan... enterprises very concern about IP issues; Each idea, product, brand is protected before appearing on the market.
According to Ly Ngoc Minh, Chairman of Binh Duong Ceramics Association, Director of Minh Long I Company (Thuan An Township), in principle, before launching the product, the first thing a business should do is to establish IPR. When law protects the product, problems with trademarks and copyrights can be avoided. This is the way to ensure a sustainable business. Currently, companies in the Ceramics Association pay great attention to this issue, but the biggest difficulty is the processing time of IPR is relatively slow. At least it takes about 6 months for ceramic products, causing difficulties in launching the product.
Tran Thanh Trong, Chairman of Binh Duong Electric Mechanical Association, General Director of Sang Ban Mai Joint Stock Company (Ben Cat Town) also said that most of companies in the association carried out IP registration for the products. But the most difficult thing is the waiting time is too long. It takes up to 3 years to some products, making it difficult for enterprises, especially for export. Explaining the reason why many enterprises dis not register IPRs, Mr. Minh said that enterprises may be confused about information, afraid of administrative procedures, or does not have a strategy.
The support of functional sectors is in need
More than 10 years after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Government is negotiating a new series of free trade agreements (FTAs) and creating favorable conditions for businesses to join business and import export with foreign partners. The Prime Minister also promulgated Directive 38 / CT-TTg on strengthening the implementation and effective utilization of FTAs with specific policies that are expected to create a stronger integration wave in Viet Nam.
Leader of enterprises successfully registered to protect intellectual property rights said that businesses were concerned about the information source on IP in Vietnam. Meanwhile, exporters are having difficulty in registering for IP protection in countries with complicated legal environment, long geographical distance, thus forced them to spend a lot of money. The IP registration in foreign countries also lacks information. In ASEAN, the legal system of countries is not uniform. Countries such as Singapore and Thailand have strict IP registration policies, but in some other countries the legal system is loose and incomplete.
At the 44th meeting of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held in Vietnam, IPR experts focused on IPR policies and discussed measures to enhance effectiveness of the IP protection system, to implement the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights; effectively implement the IPR Action Plan to achieve APEC objectives on trade and investment liberalization in 2020... thereby contributing to raising public awareness of IPRs; encourage the use, exploitation and commercialization of IPRs ...
According to experts, functional sectors need more information and experience exchange to develop market, help businesses increase competitiveness in the deep integration into the world economy, especially in the field of IPR. In particular, SMEs must be aware of the value of IP and regard it as a valuable business asset; research, make full use of the international commitments, practical experiences and legislation on IPRs of other countries in accordance with the conditions of Vietnam. Enterprises must accept the game, a fair competition with foreign enterprises in actively finding the right way and direction, know how to forecast, improve knowledge of IP, learn legal knowledge or hire lawyers for advice; actively link with members and associations of functional agencies for IP support in foreign countries.
Reported by Tieu My – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
