The latest dispute has occurred between two media firms – Topstar and URA Vietnam. Both have announced the organization of the ‘Hoa hau Doanh nhan Vietnam’ (Miss Vietnam Business).

Trung Hoang, the representative of Topstar, which owns the copyright for ‘Hoa hau Doanh nhan Vietnam’ said the company has asked the HCM City Department of Culture and Sports to rename the beauty contest with the same name ‘Hoa hau Doanh nhan Viet Nam’ organized by URA Vietnam.

Many other dispute cases have been reported recently. Organizers all have shown evidence to prove their right to use the names of the contests.

The Miss Grand Vietnam organized by Sen Vang (Golden Lotus) Company and Miss Peace Vietnam organized by Minh Khang Company are also behind a dispute over the name ‘Hoa hau hoa binh Vietnam’ in Vietnamese. The dispute has lasted a long time and both companies said they had the right to use the name.

The same thing also occurred with ‘Hoa hau Hoan vu Vietnam’. The two parties involved in the dispute were Unicorp (Vietnam) and JKN Global (Thailand). JKN stated it was the legal owner of the names Miss Universe Vietnam – Hoa hau Hoan vu Vietnam.

However, Unicorp argued that Hoa hau Hoan vu Vietnam belonged to it, while the protection of Miss Universe in Vietnam only included the brand name and the name in English ‘Miss Universe’.

The same names make it difficult for contestants, audiences and the media to differentiate among beauty contests and organizers. This affects the investment, quality and the scale of the competitions.

Asked by VietNamNet about the viewpoint of the HCM City Department of Culture and Sports about the name disputes and solutions, a representative of the agency said it doesn’t have the function of handling the dispute, but will tell involved parties to work with the Copyright Office of Vietnam (COV), an arm of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, on the issue.

Pham Thi Kim Oanh, deputy head of COV said the agency is drafting a draft decree on the implementation of some articles in the Law on Intellectual Property on copyright, saying there have been supplementary articles related to the names of artistic works.

When giving names to artistic works, one must not violate Clause 2, Article 7 of the Intellectual Property Law and other relevant laws. 

Tuan Chieu