The News of intellectual property in June 2021

The NOIP officially implements the JICA-funded Patent Application Examination Capacity Improvement Project

Source: most.gov.vn

On May 4, 2021, at the headquarters of the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, leaders of the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Vietnam officially announced the commencement of the project “Advanced processing capacity of industrial property applications at the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam.”

This is the 4th ODA project funded by JICA to Vietnam in the field of intellectual property since 2000. This project will be jointly implemented by the parties for two years, from 2021 to 2023, focusing on the patent field, specifically helping the NOIP to develop quality control documents to appraise the patent application and complete the existing patent application examination regulations and supplement guidance on examination of invention applications in the fields of artificial intelligence, internet of things and computer software.

In order to support the project implementation, JICA sent Mr. Nishimoto Koji, who is a patent examiner and a member of the Quality Control Board of Patent Application Appraisal of Japan Patent Office (JPO), to work in Vietnam in 2 years. With 28 years of experience in patent examination and professional skills in patent examination and quality management, Mr. Nishimoto Koji is considered suitable for a long-term expert position and is expected to contribute to the successful implementation of the Project’s activities with the close cooperation of the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam. At the same time, he will act as a bridge in the cooperation between the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, JICA and JPO in other issues of mutual concern.

Finally, Deputy Director Phan Ngan Son affirmed, with the experience of cooperating with JICA and many generations of long-term experts in previous projects, NOIP will surely cooperate actively and effectively with JICA in general and JICA Specialist in particular to bring this project to the set target, contribute to strengthening the good cooperation between Vietnam and Japan in the field of intellectual property.

Selling counterfeit goods of GUCCI and Adidas brands worth 43 million VND, fined 45 million VND

Source: NLD.VN

On May 27, according to information from the Vinh Phuc Market Surveillance Agency, the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee signed and issued a decision to sanction administrative violations against Luong Ngoc Quan Business Household (address: No. 01, Lac Long Quan Street, Hung Vuong Ward, Phuc Yen City), with a fine of 45 million VND for selling counterfeit goods of famous brands such as GUCCI, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Nike, Burberry…

Luong Ngoc Quan Business Household was inspected by the Vinh Phuc Market Surveillance Agency and the Phuc Yen City Police, and was discovered that he is displaying products for sale, including more than 160 products of clothing, wallets and belts bearing famous brands such as GUCCI, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Nike, Burberry (worth 43 million dong).

All of the above goods are produced by foreign countries, there are no invoices to prove the origin, and there are signs of counterfeiting of the protected trademark.

The Vinh Phuc Market Surveillance Agency has determined that all goods in custody of Luong Ngoc Quan Business Household are counterfeit goods of trademarks being protected in Vietnam.

In addition to fines, according to the decision of the Chairman of the People’s Committee of Vinh Phuc province, all the above-mentioned counterfeit goods must be destroyed.

Continuously checked and dismantled warehouses of counterfeit goods in many localities

Source: Chinhphu.vn

Market Surveillance Agency in localities continuously detected and checked and dismantled many warehouses of counterfeit goods in Ninh Binh, Hanoi, Ha Nam…

Dismantling of the largest warehouse of counterfeit goods ever in Ninh Binh

A warehouse with all products from civil, household, and consumer goods, mainly counterfeit brands and smuggled goods, with an area of about 1,000m2 located in Ninh Binh province, has just been dismantled by Ninh Binh Market Surveillance Agency. This is the largest violation warehouse ever in Ninh Binh.

The warehouse contains a large number of household products, civil products, food, functional foods, clothes, watches, etc. with signs of counterfeiting of trademarks, smuggled goods; violations of trademarks and food safety.

Recorded on the sales system of the shop, each livestream video on Facebook has about 5,000 views and on average, about 1,000 orders will be sent out through shipping services a day.

Uncovering a large warehouse of smuggled counterfeit goods in Hanoi

Hundreds of product codes with thousands of products from clothing, household appliances to cosmetics, which are traded mainly through social networks through the form of sales livestream, were discovered and seized by the Hanoi Market Surveillance Agency on March 30.

All products were with signs of counterfeiting or being smuggled. When worked with inspectors, the shop failed to present any documents proving the legal origin of the goods other than the Business Household Registration Certificate. At the warehouse, the functional force recorded a

large amount of goods with signs of counterfeiting of registered trademarks in Vietnam such as Gucci, Channel, LV, Adidas, and thousands of smuggled household products such as: Induction cooker, grill, rice cooker, electric pan,…

Recorded on the sales system of the above-mentioned shop, in just 6 months, more than 655,000 orders were closed for sale. That is, on average, more than 3,000 orders will be sent out a day through the Express Delivery system.

Ha Nam caught red-handed a factory producing fake branded clothes

A factory that was producing thousands of men’s fashion clothing products with signs of counterfeiting many famous fashion brands such as “Adidas”, “Nike”, “Lacoste”, “Burberry” has just been caught and seized by Ha Nam Market Surveillance Agency.

On March 30, 2021, Ha Nam Market Surveillance Agency coordinated with Ha Nam Provincial Police to carry out a surprise inspection of the clothing factory belonging to Su Hang Private Enterprise in Ha Nam province, owned by Mr. Tran Trong Su.

At the time of inspection, inspectors discovered that the factory was organizing the production of men’s fashion clothing of all kinds with signs of counterfeiting of the brands “Adidas”, “Nike”, “Lacoste”, “Burberry” being protected in the territory of Vietnam. The owner of the factory fails to present the processing contract and invoices and documents related to raw materials for production.

The inspectors then made a decision to seize more than 5,000 finished products which are men’s fashion clothes of all kinds with Adidas, Nike, Lacoste, Burberry brands and more than 4,000 separate labels with Adidas, Nike, and Burberry brands.

US, Australian Firms Are Trying to Trademark Vietnam’s Award-Winning Rice and action from the owner of the rice varieties ST25

Recently, the press simultaneously reported that companies in the United States and Australia are attempting to trademark the ST25 rice varieties developed in Vietnam which won the World’s Best Rice Award in 2019.

Actually, Ho Quang Tri Private Enterprise – the company of Mr. Ho Quang Cua’s family is the owner of ST25 rice varieties. Thus, in this situation, in order to protect its intellectual property right in the US, Ho Quang Tri Private Enterprise has recently registered for protection of “Gao Ong Cua” trademark. In addition to registering for protection of “Gao Ong Cua” trademark, Ho Quang Tri Private Enterprise will also continue to pursue complaints about others trademark applications refer to ST25 rice varieties.

The trademark registered by private enterprise Ho Quang Tri for protection has a recognizable sign of Mr. Ho Quang Cua’s face, next to it is a rice flower and the words “Gao Ong Cua”. The trademark application was received by the USPTO and forwarded to the examination department within 3 months.

Collected By ELITE LAW FIRM