Efforts are being ramped up to tackle widespread software piracy in locations across the country.  

So far this month, the Inter-Ministerial Inspection Team consisting of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST) inspectors and officers of the Anti Hi-Tech Crimes Department have been raiding businesses suspected of using unlicensed software.

A total of eight such raids were conducted against enterprises, where illegal software valued at more than VND13.5 billion ($630,000) was discovered. This came off the back of a month-long awareness raising campaign responding to the World Intellectual Property (IP) Day which was launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and supported by the Vietnamese Government Inter-Ministerial Intellectural Property Rights (IPR) Protection Task Forces (Programme 168).

The eight companies raided were all engaged in the manufacturing sector, including four enterprises of Taiwanese ownership, while the other four were owned by Chinese, Korean, Swiss and Thai nationalities. Disobedient companies included Chin Chen Fuh Vietnam Molds MFG Limited and Asia Pacific Plastic Limited – both based in the Mekong Delta province of Long An – as well as Zongshen Motor Vietnam Limited based in Hanoi’s Me Linh district.

According to Tran Van Minh, MoCST deputy chief inspector, over a thousand copies of unlicensed software were found in 493 PCs that were being used in business operations.

According to a report of the Inter-Ministerial Inspection Team, representatives of the eight companies have admitted to their infringements, pledging to remove all unlicensed software from their PCs and legalise all software in their business operations.

“In the coming weeks and months, we are committed to enhancing our enforcement actions against all businesses suspected of continuing to use illegal software, to ensure compliance after having been educated during the recent World IP Day campaign,” Minh asserted.

The Vietnamese government has been a solid advocate for strong intellectual property rights protection, as evidenced by the issuance of Directive No. 36/2008/CT-TTg which was signed by the prime minister in December 2008. The directive places responsibility on any enterprise, including foreign-invested entities, against violation of the laws on IP.

The above-said month-long campaign marking World IP Day was seen as an ideal opportunity to raise awareness of intellectual property rights amongst enterprises in the business sector. Besides administrative measures, other effective sanctions against IPR infringements were also being encouraged and promoted by concerned IPR protection agencies.

Specifically, deputy director of the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam Pham Phi Anh has proposed establishing specialised IP courts in order to make best use of the civil sanctions. Illegal use of copyrighted software may also be subject to criminal prosecution in accordance with the revised Criminal Code, which came into effect on January 1, 2010.

VIR