VietNamNet Bridge – As the economy continues to struggle in its downward trend, companies become even more serious about competition and copyright regulations seem to be tighter. This has been proven through a series of audits and inspections by agencies in charge against companies nationwide in the first two quarters of the year. The pressure is not just felt in Vietnam, the US Unfair Competition Act is also being seriously rolled out in different states in the United States targeting exporters in this market.

Tightening the knot at home

Following the raids at a dozen of major firms in various provinces and cities in the country in recent months, the largest check was just launched by the inspectors of the Ministry of Culture-Sports-Tourism (MoCST) in cooperation with the Hi-tech Crime Police (C50 under the Ministry of Public Security) at SunWood Vina Co. Ltd. This is a Korean wholly-owned company, headquartered in southern Binh Duong province’s Bau Bang Industrial Park (IP), doing business in the provision and installation of specialised fireproof doors, doors for homes and interior design.

The inspection team disclosed that it checked 14 computers being in use at Sunwood Vina Co. and found 49 pirated software copies, including Autodesk’s AutoCAD propriety design application and many popular office software programmes, such as Lac Viet Dictionary, Windows XP, Office and others. The representative of this company signed his name on the inspection record, acknowledging that copying and use of copyrights (for software) without licence from the owners do constitute an act of intellectual property law violation.

By estimates of economists, a company using illegal software apparently has pricing advantages and actually has engaged in unfair competition against other companies, which in their effort to abide by the law spend billions of dong on licenced software. Not just creating an unhealthy competition environment between businesses, use of pirated software also stifles the local software industry and mars the nation’s reputation.

In a recent workshop, Vu Manh Chu, former head of Vietnam Copyright Office, under the MoCST, talked about the risks that Vietnamese companies or foreign firms operating in Vietnam using unlicenced software may face when exporting merchandise to international markets.

“For a foreign company that uses local labour and equipment to produce and export goods to other countries, if the importing country knows that it is not using licenced software, both the company’s originating country and Vietnam will bear the consequences. A Vietnamese company producing and exporting goods to international markets that fails to use licenced software will face the risk of having its exporting right to such country withdrawn”.

Software piracy litigation fuss in the US

The intellectual property violation in Information Technology Act was first passed by the Washington state parliament on July 22, 2011, targeting unhealthy competition, specifically use of unlicenced software. Under this act, manufacturing companies involved in unhealthy competition by using stolen information technology products that sell their products in the state may face legal actions, obligations to indemnify, confiscation of merchandise and even loss of access to the US market. Two years coming into effect, the act has now been adopted by many more US states in a bid to create a more equitable business environment.

Just recently, an Indian company and a Chinese company working in textile exports were sued at the Los Angeles Supreme Court for using unlicenced software to gain undue competitive edges over the American competition in California. The textile producers were alleged of failing to pay software licence fee, thereby gaining significant pricing and margin advantages in their production and sales.

Obviously, the act is being adopted with increasing coverage to remove any companies using pirated software from the supply chain of American importers.

Using licenced software in the business process has now become a requisite for all firms, including those in Vietnam wanting to set a foot on the world’s biggest market.

Vietnam’s largest export market remains the US. Not just big in terms of amount, commodities exported to the world’s largest economy are also very wide-ranging in types, from farming, forestry and fishery products to textile, footwear, hi-tech items such as telephones, computers or building materials.

Source: VIR