|
The bitter sorrows of businessmen
Struggling with counterfeit products
Intellectual property infringement, counterfeit and imitation goods have been besetting businesses, while sanctions are not strong enough to deter violations.
Living together with reproduced disks
Huynh Tiet, Director of Ben Thanh Audio-Video, said that illegal disk reproduction became popular in 2004. According to him the disk reproduction prime cost is just 2,200 dong per disk, ex-factory price is 3,200 dong, and shops sell disks for 5,000-6,000 dong each.
Meanwhile, enterprises’ production costs are no less than 7,000 dong per disk, while they still have to pay musicians, singers, studios and many other expenses.
Tiet estimates that producers have to invest at least 130 million dong in a CD project, and they need to sell 10,000 disks to be able to recover capital. However, they sell only an average of 2,000 disks per project. Meanwhile, reproduced disks of the same programmes are everywhere in the market.
“It is unfair that someone steals ideas, efforts of other people and earns money with other people’s things,” Tiet said.
He went on to say that music websites are “lending a hand” in the killing of creativeness in the music industry.
Doan Dinh Quoc, General Director of Dinh Quoc Joint Stock Company, a producer of glass and mirrors for interior decoration, said that there are so many counterfeit products that Dinh Quoc has to protect itself by changing its logo regularly. Quoc estimates that his company loses 2-3 billion dong a year due to counterfeit products.
Stuck in the management net
In early march 2008, Binh Minh Plastics Company, the owner of the well-known “Binh Minh” brand name, suddenly discovered that another “Binh Minh” was producing plastics tubes in HCM City.
The noteworthy thing was that the “brother” Binh Minh was born legally in accordance with the business registration certificate granted by the HCM City Planning and Investment Department on February 15, 2008.
The full name of the “brother” was Ong Binh Minh Trade, Service and Plastics Production Company Ltd, or Ong Binh Minh Plastics.
Binh Minh Plastics Company then lodged an appeal with HCM City agencies. However, the HCM City Planning and Investment Department said that the licencing of Ong Binh Minh Plastics observed current regulations.
Binh Minh Plastics Company then entreated the HCM City Science and Technology Department for help, asking the department to intervene and instruct the HCM City Planning and Investment Department to not use the “Binh Minh” name anymore.
Binh Minh Plastics Company also sent a letter to Ong Binh Minh Plastics Company, demanding the company stop using the “Binh Minh” brand name.
However, Ong Binh Minh believes that it has not been breaking the law and continues using the name.
According to Tran Hoang Ngan, a leader of Binh Minh Plastics Company, the two HCM City agencies have not reached an agreement on the case.
Meanwhile, Tiet has pointed out that there are a lot of problems in the regulations stipulating fines for intellectual property violations. He said that the 100 million dong fine per case of infringement is not heavy enough to deter violators, as the profit they can get from infringement is greater than the fine.
According to Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan, there are many ministries involved in intellectual property management. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism undertakes state management in copyright, the Ministry of Science and Technology in technology ownership, while plant varieties are under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Meanwhile, there are many concerned agencies involved in the implementation of laws, including the market control taskforce, economics police and border customs agencies.
There have been many unsettled disputes since 2006. Tran Van Su, HCM City Tribunal Deputy President, said that prosecutors have to prove the losses caused by intellectual property violators, while this is really difficult work.
VietNamNet, TP
|
