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Copyright violations threaten exports
As the economy continues its downward trend, companies are finding competition - and copyright regulations - have become tighter.
This was revealed in a series of audits and inspections by agencies in charge of companies nationwide in the first half of the year.
The pressure comes not only from Viet Nam. The United States' Unfair Competition Act is also being rolled out in various states in the US targeting exporters.
Raids have been made on a dozen large firms in various Vietnamese provinces and cities in recent months.
The largest check was launched by inspectors from the Ministry of Culture-Sports-Tourism in co-operation with the Hi-tech Crime Police from the Ministry of Public Security at SunWood Vina Co Ltd.
The wholly-owned Korean company, based in Bau Bang IP, Ben Cat, Binh Duong, is in the business of providing and installing fireproof doors -and doors for homes and interior design.
The inspection team said it checked 14 computers being in use at Sunwood Vina Co and found the contained 49 pirated software copies, including Autodesk's AutoCAD propriety design application and many popular office software programmes, such as a Lac Viet dictionary, Windows XP, Office and others.
An officials from the company signed his name on the inspection record, acknowledging the use of copyrighted software without licence.
Economists claim that companies using illegal software have pricing advantages and are engaged in unfair competition against other companies that spend billions of dong on licensed software.
They also say that the use of pirated software also stifles the local software industry and mars the nation's reputation.
At a recent workshop, Vu Manh Chu, former head of the Viet Nam Copyright Office, spoke about the risks companies, including foreign firms, may face when exporting merchandise to international markets.
"A foreign company caught faces the risk of having its exporting rights withdrawn if the importing country knows that it is not using licensed software."
Recently, Indian and Chinese companies exporting textiles were sued in Los Angeles Supreme Court for using unlicensed software to gain undue competitive edge over American companies.
Viet Nam's largest export market is the US, with a turnover of US$8.846 billion, a $1,276 billion growth over 2012.
Commodities sold to the world's largest economy include those from farming, forestry and fisheries, textiles, footwear, telephones, computers and building materials.
Licensed software has become a requisite for all firms wanting to sell in the US.
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