VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu spoke to Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) about intellectual property rights enforcement

What is your assessment of recent work on curbing sales of counterfeit goods that violate intellectual property rights?

The Government has been interested in stemming the production of imitation goods for a long time. So far the Government has issued two instructions on curbing fake and low quality goods, once in 1999 and again in 2008.

The establishment of Committee 853, which was later renamed the Central Committee 127, is a force for stemming production and trade of counterfeit and fake products and violations of intellectual property rights.

Though many cases of intellectual property rights violations have been processed, there are many more that should be caught, and our work still has certain limitations.

Are these limitations due to the lack of co-ordination between authorities, business as well as consumers?

Although co-ordination between authorities, businesses and people has been implemented for years, it hasn't been successful. The limitations are due to poor organisation of executive forces. Businesses themselves are not sufficiently aware of the issue.

Co-ordination, however, has been improved recently, bringing about certain results. It has been manifested in the association among authorities and businesses in fighting counterfeit and fake products and violations of intellectual property rights. To do the task better in the time to come, authorities need to boost dissemination of information to help businesses and people be better aware of the issue.

Are there any other limitations in fighting counterfeit and fake products?

It is possible to see limitations in training staff how to identify the sophisticated tricks used by some people who produce counterfeit products. Besides this, the challenge is that products sold in Viet Nam that violate intellectual property rights are mass produced in neighbouring countries, and these products have penetrated the Vietnamese market.

Vietnamese firms have a smaller production scale and it is very common to see craft villages relying on self production and consumption as a way of countering fake products that flood in from outside. The reasons for market penetration by counterfeit products are varied, ranging from inconsistencies in the law to a lack of economic management over what is a developing market economy.

What needs to be done to overcome these limitations?

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is currently studying all aspects to this issue with a view to putting forward measures to overcome these limitations and raise legal protection for intellectual property. These concepts will be made clear to help businesses and people understand and distinguish products that violate intellectual property rights.

Along with this, the competence of executive forces will be clearly regulated. Officials in cities and provinces must improve their professional skills in managing and orienting industrial production to prevent their localities from making a quick buck by producing counterfeit and fake products.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News