Miss Grand Vietnam organizer fined 55 million VND

Mr. Duong Anh Duc - Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just signed Decision No. 2952/QD-XPHC on administrative sanctions against Minh Khang Vietnam Trading and Service Company Limited for organizing the Miss Peace Vietnam 2022 contest without a license in Ho Chi Minh City.

Candidates at the press conference announcing the contest.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City said that the department plays an advisory role to the Committee in the process of reviewing violations as well as giving penalties.

Accordingly, this company organized online and in-person preliminary rounds from July 31 to August 2 in Ho Chi Minh City without written approval.

For the above violation, Minh Khang Trading and Service Company Limited was administratively fined 55 million VND.

Miss Peace Vietnam 2022 is organized by Minh Khang Trading and Service Company Limited. According to the company's representative, the contest aims to find ambassadors of peace, promote inner beauty, and focus on activities to protect the marine environment...

In early June, the Miss Peace Vietnam 2022 Organizing Company said that the contest had been properly licensed by the authorities, along with the name Miss Peace Vietnam.

According to this company, they have 2 copyright certificates for the script of the Miss Grand Vietnam 2023 contest issued by the Copyright Office - Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on March 21, 5 applications for intellectual property registration of the contest's trademark model with 4 decisions accepting valid applications issued by the Intellectual Property Office - Ministry of Science and Technology and a document from the People's Committee of Da Nang City approving the organization of the semi-finals and finals of the Miss Grand Vietnam 2022 contest.

At the same time, the organizing committee also issued 6 decisions of the Intellectual Property Office issued from January 2021 to May 2022, recognizing intellectual property rights with 6 trademarks with logos: Miss Peace Vietnam (2 decisions), Miss Peace International, Miss Grand Vietnam, Miss Grand International, Miss Grand Vietnam.

Sharing the same Vietnamese name: Miss Grand Vietnam, Miss Grand Vietnam 2022 (just finished the preliminary round in Ho Chi Minh City) is organized by Sen Vang Company. Miss Grand Vietnam aims to find a Vietnamese representative to follow Thuy Tien to compete in Miss Grand International. The two competitions have completely different criteria, purposes, content, and scale. However, due to the overlapping Vietnamese names, the two units have had conflicts.