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Sponging off big brand names
What can be done to deal with cases in which businesses have the same names, coinciding trademarks and logos? The question proves to be a newly-arisen one.
A private guest house with 12 rooms for rent has suddenly enjoyed business prosperity with more and more clients since it changed the guest house’s name plate, using a logo similar to that of a giant company in the telecommunications industry.
Located on Tran Duy Hung road in Hanoi, the guest house easily catches the eyes of people with the big red plate, the words ‘guest house’ and the somewhat familiar logo. People think that the giant telecommunications company has jumped into a new business field.
However, the telecommunications company is not connected to the guest house in any way.
The owner of the house related that his idea of ‘borrowing’ the name of the giant company appeared in his mind when he saw the shares of the company being hunted on Vietnam’s stock market in 2007. However, it was not until late November 2008 that he decided to change the name of the guest house from Song Hong to a name similar to that of the company, after he upgraded the rooms and re-decorated them.
The renaming was explained as aiming to excite the curiosity of clients. The number of clients renting rooms has increased significantly, the occupancy rate has doubled. On weekends and holidays, all 12 rooms are always booked.
“We are not imitating the brand name of the telecommunications group, we are just ‘borrowing’ the letters in their logo. The colours of the letters are different, not exactly the same as their logo,” the owner of the guest house said.
However, the giant telecommunications company thinks differently. The company’s leaders have been insisting that the guest’s house use of the company’s logo has badly affected the prestige of the group. They say that all the details of the logo, including colour and name, are protected by copyright laws.
The telecommunications group has asked the guest house to remove the plate, threatening to bring the case to court if the guest house’s owner refused.
A famous hotel in Tay Ho district in Hanoi has also complained that its name has been ‘borrowed’. Earlier this year, a karaoke shop with the same name and logo as the hotel appeared – just several metres from the hotel. Several days after the karaoke shop became operational, the shop’s owner decided to change its name, but the logo remains unchanged, and is still hanging over the entrance.
The hotel’s representative said that the hotel had never registered that kind of entertainment business. “What would happen if newspapers, in some news, mentioned a karaoke shop with the same name as our hotel? It is lucky that they have changed the karaoke shop’s name,” he said.
The establishment of a massive number of businesses recently as a result of open policies on business registration has led to the fact that a lot of businesses have similar names, brand names and logos. In many cases, businesses use brand names and logos of others for their own dark ends.
The Hiep Long Company Ltd in Binh Duong province was established 10 years ago, and its brand name has been protected by the law. However, in 2007, the company discovered a business in Quang Ngai province with the same name.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Majestic Hotel in HCM City were very surprised when discovering a Majestic Hotel in Vung Tau city.
According to the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP), if businesses discover other businesses which have the same names and imitate their logos, they can file a claim with the NOIP. The laws protect the businesses and individuals who register trademarks and names before others.
Lawyer Bach Thanh Binh from Pham and Associates Law Office said that in principle, the trademark is protected according to business fields. If the said telecommunications group has registered for brand name protection, and it has the function of providing accommodations and hotel services on its operation licence, the guest house has violated the law by using the same name and logo.
However, if the telecommunications group does not have the function of providing accommodation services, an accommodation and hotel service provider can use that name.
However, experts have pointed out that businesses should protect their rights and interests if their brand names are copied by other businesses. In this case, businesses have the right to ask for the protection of the law when someone uses the same brand name as them, regardless of business field.
Businesses also have the right to ask for the protection of the law if the use of the same brand names may cause misunderstandings in commodity origins, or misunderstandings about the relationships between brand name users and the actual owners of the brand names.
VietNamNet, VNE
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