Vietnam to sue Chinese company to get back coffee brand name

[SpiritHS]

Vietnam has completed drafting all the documents required to claim back the right to its Buon Me Thuot coffee trademark which was granted to a Chinese company, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Monday.

The law firm of Pham & Associates, representing the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak in taking legal action against Guangzhou Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Co. Ltd, had earlier asked the company to sell the brand name back for US$8,000.
But the Buon Me Thuoc Coffee Association and Dak Lak people’s committee decided to sue when the company demanded a higher price, the head of the law firm, Pham Vu Khanh Toan, said.

The case might go on for two to three years, but Vietnam has the edge due to the evidence it has, he said.
Thanh Nien News
Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily | Vietnam to sue Chinese company to get back coffee brand name

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:45 PM ----------

Vietnam likely to take back patent to coffee brand: lawyer

Vietnam stands a chance of claiming back the patent right to its famous Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand, which has been recently granted to a Chinese company in China, a lawyer told Thanh Nien Thursday.

Pham Vu Khanh Toan, head of Pham & Associates – the law firm contracted to represent the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak in taking legal actions against China-based Guangzhou Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Co. Ltd., made the statement on the sidelines of a conference on protecting the brand held in Dak Lak on November 3.

He said Chinese laws dictate that a brand isn’t eligible for patent registration if its product is found not to have originated from the same place as it is showed in the brand’s geographic indications.

In fact, a prestigious Chinese firm that specializes in intellectual copyright said the two brands – BUON MA THUOT and Chinese characters, and BUON MA THUOT COFFEE 1986 – granted to the Chinese company would probably be invalidated, because Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand’s geographic indications were already recognized and registered in Vietnam, Toan stressed.

Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association will provide evidence showing that the Chinese company used to do business with local businesses that helped it gain awareness of the brand and therefore registered it later in China, the lawyer said.

Additionally, Buon Ma Thuot is a geographical name in Vietnam and its Chinese translation makes no sense, Toan said. He said the patent to the brand was granted in Vietnam back in 2005, while it wasn’t registered in China until last year and this year.

In a report published Thursday, Tuoi Tre said that Guangzhou Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Co. Ltd was granted the 10-year patents to the brands in November 2010 and June 2011.
According to Toan, he is trying to win the case at Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce’s Trademark Appeal Board to avoid bringing it to court which is more time-consuming and costly.

The lawyer anticipated that the proceedings would take between two and three years, but he also said with support from Vietnamese diplomatic agencies, it would be shorter.

Previously, Doan Kim Ca, secretary of the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association, said that his association would apply for rights to the brand in 16 countries, including the US and Japan.
By Tran Ngoc Quyen, Thanh Nien News

 

[SpiritHS]

Vietnam at risk of losing fish sauce trademark in China

A fish sauce factory on Phu Quoc Island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang. Phu Quoc fish sauce, a famous Vietnamese brand, has been registered in China by a Hong Kong company recently
A Hong Kong-based company has registered a famous Vietnamese fish sauce brand in China, the latest in a wave of brand banditry afflicting Vietnam’s ability to compete on the international market.

In a recent letter to the science and technology department in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, Bross & Partners, a law firm in Hanoi, said they found last month that the geographic indication of Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island fish sauce had been registered under a Chinese brand.

Viet Huong Trading Company Limited, which is based in Hong Kong, submitted its trademark application to Chinese agencies in May, the law firm said, adding that the trademark included a map of Phu Quoc Island, an anchovy, and the name “Phu Quoc.”

Le Quang Vinh, lawyer of Bross & Partners, said under Chinese laws, a third party can protest Viet Huong’s application when it is announced in May 2012. If no one protests within three months, it’s very likely that Chinese agencies will grant the trademark to the company, Vinh said.

In the meantime, Nguyen Thi Tinh, chairwoman of the Phu Quoc Fish Sauce Association in Kien Giang, told Thanh Nien that the association had asked local agencies as well as the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam to talk with Chinese parties to regain the rights to the brand.

“Upon receiving the information, the association convened a meeting with all members, and everyone was outraged and worried,” Tinh said. “Once the Phu Quoc fish sauce brand is violated, the product’s manufacturers and traders will suffer.”

According to Tinh, while the brand’s geographic indication was put under national protection in 2001, not until last year did the association and Kien Giang authorities apply for brand protection in the EU. The application is still under consideration at the EU, she added.

The famous fish sauce brand was abused by Thai companies who exported the product to the US and European countries in the 1970s.

In 1982, the US-based Viet Huong Fishsauce Company was also granted sole patent rights to the brand by related agencies in the US and later in European countries and Australia.

Phu Quoc fish sauce, however, wasn’t the first Vietnamese product brand registered by foreign companies in different countries.

Experts said that over the past few years, many similar cases have happened, mainly because local businesses have failed to register their brands overseas, either because of ignorance or lack of resources.

Last month, for example, local media reported that China-based Guangzhou Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Co., Ltd. had been granted the sole patent right to Vietnam’s famous Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand in China.

The same situation happened before, in 1997, when French company ITM Entreprises was given the right to Dak Lak coffee brand, another well-known trademark, by related agencies in France, and later in many other countries like Austria and Switzerland.

Meanwhile, a company in Los Angeles had already registered Phan Thiet fish sauce brand in the US and extended its patent to 2019 two years ago.

Not to mention that in 1998 Ben Tre coconut sweets was registered by a Chinese company in China, while in 2001, Trung Nguyen, which owns the coffee trademark of the same name, together with others found that their brands were already registered in many countries.

But several local companies have started taking action.

Le Van Tien, director of the Department of Science and Technology in the central province of Binh Thuan, said the department will draft a plan with other provincial authorities to register for the sole overseas patent right to its Phan Thiet fish sauce brand.

He said at first they will register the brand in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and the US.

“Although we have yet to export fish sauce to the US and other countries, registration is necessary to put the brand under protection,” said Truong Quang Hien, vice chairman of the Phan Thiet Fish Sauce Association. “We are aware that if we don’t register our product overseas quickly, we will face export problems.”

However, Hien said that local businesses are still in need of government supports in registering the patent right to their products in foreign countries.
Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily | Vietnam at risk of losing fish sauce trademark in China

 

[Götterdämmerung]

I love Vietnamese style coffee, I even bought the Vientnamese coffee making device, which actually is a filter. But I can't get any original coffee from Vietnam so I have to go for Italian coffee. I always order a "Saigon" coffee when I eat pho.

I have a bottle of Phu Quoc fish sauce at home.

 

[SpiritHS]

Vietnam should sue Chinese company over coffee patent

Workers sort through green robusta coffee beans for defects.
Dak Lak Province should sue a Chinese company for violating the trademark of Buon Ma Thuot coffee, Nguyen Van An, executive board member at the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, told Thanh Nien Weekly in an interview.

A Chinese firm has recently patented a Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand as an exclusive trademark in China for ten years. What are your opinions about the issue?

Nguyen Van An: Vietnam mainly exports raw materials. We have yet to boost our shipments of processed agricultural products. A number of Vietnamese farm products have become more well-known on the world market recently, so some foreign firms have registered sole patent rights for Vietnamese product brand names to take advantage of this.

The registration of the brand name of a product could help prevent the same commodities from being sold to markets where the brand name has been registered.

Local media has recently mentioned two cases in which a Chinese company and a French company have registered for the sole patent right to the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand, and Dak Lak coffee brand respectively. It is alarming to us that we are not patenting geographical indications.

The Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association has patented the geographic indications for Buon Ma Thuot coffee in Vietnam, but has not yet done so in the world or the region. The brand name registration of the Chinese company is a warning to Vietnamese companies to register geographic indications for their products.

How will this case affect Vietnam’s coffee exports?
It now has not yet affected our exports. However, it will impact the coffee shipments of Vietnamese firms in the long term.

Buon Ma Thuot coffee is considered a product made in a special locality. Frankly speaking, Buon Ma Thuot is a major coffee growing area, but the quality of the coffee is not very high, mainly to serve the instant coffee industry only. The coffee is not used much in the production of high-level drinks.

However, the foreign firm’s registration for the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand could seriously affect other brands. It will be very dangerous if something similar happens to some other famous brands such as Phu Quoc pepper, or Phu Quoc fish sauce.

We should consider the long-term impact of losing brand names. The patent of the Chinese firm for Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand is wrong, and we can sue it for the violation. Buon Ma Thuot is a geographic indication belonging to Vietnam. Geographical indications are place names used to identify the origin, quality, reputation or other characteristics of products.

What has the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association done to deal with the case?

The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association thinks that the patent of the Chinese firm is wrong, and needs to be eliminated. This is stealing. Buon Ma Thuot is Vietnam’s geographic indication, and the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand name is owned by Dak Lak Province, and managed by the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association.

The Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association should conduct legal procedures and hire lawyers to deal with the case. We could sue the Chinese firm over the patent.

What is the lesson we should learn from this case?

Vietnamese firms often only consider short-term plans for their business and brand name. We should consider long-term potential, and patent our brand names in potential markets such as China, Japan and the US.

CONSUMER CONFUSION

Tran Huu Nam, deputy head of the Intellectual Property Department at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the Chinese company patenting the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand could make international consumers confused about the real origin and characteristics of Vietnam’s own Buon Ma Thuot coffee products.

Dak Lak Province should prepare a case against the Chinese company, he said, because it could win. He also pledged his department’s support of any lawsuit by way of helping out with administrative procedures and establishing the legal foundations on which to sue.

This is not the first time Vietnamese product brand names have been patented by foreign firms. The same thing happened to Trung Nguyen coffee and Ben Tre coconut candy.

With over 100,000 hectares of coffee trees and an annual output of 300,000 tons of coffee each year, Buon Ma Thuot is one of Vietnam’s most important coffee cultivation areas. The country has a total coffee output of around one million tons each year. Vietnamese coffee has been exported to 60 countries and regions.

Vietnam, the world’s second biggest coffee exporter, shipped 958,000 tons of coffee, worth US$2.1 billion, in the first eight months of this year, up 71.4 percent in terms of value compared to the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office.

 

[SpiritHS]

My brother always wanted to own anything good of me. it is narrow, right? in the future, we still respect him?

 

[Truong Sa]

It is a bitter lesson for our business when Vietnam global integration.
Vietnam businesses must pay more attention to the protection of their brand.

The Chinese are always willing to do faked goods or anything when it is preferred in the world.

 

[Tractor]

In my opinion,if you have the ability to do fake things then just do it,the original brand owners should be proud of their goods to be faked no matter good or bad to their reputation.

 

[seethru]

In my opinion,if you have the ability to do fake things then just do it,the original brand owners should be proud of their goods to be faked no matter good or bad to their reputation.

And lose their revenue? You have NO sense of respect to Ownership, do you?

 

[Tractor]

And lose their revenue? You have NO sense of respect to Ownership, do you?

Maybe,communism means no ownership to me.

 

[seethru]

^^^^^^^^^^Does that apply to Sovereignty as well?

For example Tibet sovereignty Vs Chinese sovereignty?

How can you expect others to respect your rights to claim something as your own(which is ownership) when you disregard that right itself?

 

[Truong Sa]

In my opinion,if you have the ability to do fake things then just do it,the original brand owners should be proud of their goods to be faked no matter good or bad to their reputation.

I appreciate some products owned by Chinese as Midea, Lenovo... But I hate China's fake products very much. They produce too many fake products ... If you cheer for the production of fake goods, it is like you praise a thief that he did well.

 

[Tractor]

I appreciate some products owned by Chinese as Midea, Lenovo... But I hate China's fake products very much. They produce too many fake products ... If you cheer for the production of fake goods, it is like you praise a thief that he did well.

Goods be faked are there in markets,in streets,you can not criticize and prevent people from collecting money you just thrown away there.

 

[EastSea]

Goods be faked are there in markets,in streets,you can not criticize and prevent people from collecting money you just thrown away there.

In the future chinese can make a noisy with typical chinese propaganda that they (chinese) invented first in the world "Cafe Buon Ma Thuot" in fact they stolen from Viet

 

[Götterdämmerung]

And lose their revenue? You have NO sense of respect to Ownership, do you?

Never rest on your laurel!

Even though a lot of German products get plagiarised by Chinese and many other countries, we still maintain a leadership because we invest tons of money to be always a step ahead of our competitors. That's why I say current IPR is a hurdle to progress and fairness, as people/country/company are hindering developing countries access to technology and knowhow and also many are getting lazy and think that once I have a copyright, I can live of it for the rest of my life.

 

[SpiritHS]

Never rest on your laurel!

Even though a lot of German products get plagiarised by Chinese and many other countries, we still maintain a leadership because we invest tons of money to be always a step ahead of our competitors. That's why I say current IPR is a hurdle to progress and fairness, as people/country/company are hindering developing countries access to technology and knowhow and also many are getting lazy and think that once I have a copyright, I can live of it for the rest of my life.

as you said, we must stop new inventions, we should focus all resources for stealing. right?