'Fear' of fighting counterfeit goods: The real paradox of businesses

The fact that businesses whose goods are counterfeited and imitated are indifferent, hesitant, and do not cooperate in fighting counterfeiting is a real paradox.

Businesses "afraid" of fighting counterfeit goods?

“Indeed, when the police catch a person counterfeiting their products, businesses should be happy, but they run to scratch their heads and say, ‘That would kill the business’, that if the news is out, the business’s revenue will decrease. How can we fight against counterfeit goods then?’” Mr. Le The Bao, Chairman of the Vietnam Association for Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection (VATAP), publicly revealed this paradox at the Anti-Counterfeiting, Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Business Role Conference held this week.

Some businesses were informed that their goods were counterfeited near Tet, but they asked us not to reveal their identities, for fear that consumers would be “haunted”, and that their genuine goods would be implicated and left in storage. “So what is the point of declaring war on counterfeit goods, if not for the benefit of businesses and consumers?” a representative of the Steering Committee 389 also said indignantly.

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According to Mr. Nguyen Trong Tin, Deputy Director of the Market Management Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), one of the reasons why the fight against counterfeit goods and trade fraud has not achieved high results is because "the community's awareness of counterfeit goods and goods that infringe upon intellectual property rights is still limited". In addition, the financial resources, equipment, means and human resources of market management to serve the fight against counterfeit goods and infringement of intellectual property rights... are still too thin.

“More importantly, many businesses and entities that have been violated have not fully recognized their responsibility to the community and have not actively cooperated with authorities,” Mr. Tin added.

The psychological limitation of fear of counterfeit goods affecting revenue, brand, and reputation of businesses partly explains why the fight against counterfeit goods is still difficult and each year there are still more than 25,000 cases of counterfeit goods, counterfeit goods, and intellectual property violations...

Must be "in the same trenches"!

According to Mr. Do Thang Hai, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, to combat smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and intellectual property violations, there needs to be stronger involvement from the central to local levels, especially the local authorities - which play a decisive role. Moreover, it is necessary to clarify the role of enterprises in the fight against counterfeit goods, fake goods, and violations.

“We need to pay attention to whether businesses are aware of and have invested properly in the fight against counterfeit goods and intellectual property infringement? Have businesses properly assessed the importance of anti-counterfeiting work? Has the coordination with enforcement agencies been truly effective?”, Mr. Hai said.

Deputy Director of the Economic Police Department (Ministry of Public Security), Mr. Hoang Van Truc, also emphasized that for businesses, they should proactively protect themselves by declaring, so that agencies can know about the types of goods of the business that have counterfeited trademarks and brands by other units.

Mr. Le The Bao said that it is impossible to fight against counterfeit goods if businesses do not actively cooperate. “Businesses need to coordinate with enforcement agencies to fight against counterfeit goods and build their brands. At the same time, it is necessary to support enforcement agencies in this matter,” Mr. Bao emphasized.

Expressing his willingness to cooperate with the authorities, Mr. Nguyen Anh Ngoc, Head of the Trademark and Violation Handling Department (Investip Industrial Property Joint Stock Company) also suggested that the handling of counterfeit goods and goods infringing intellectual property rights would be much more effective if it were possible to investigate to find the manufacturing unit or the source of importing counterfeit goods. However, this is a very difficult and dangerous job. Enterprises really need the support and assistance of the police force in investigating and handling the above cases.

According to Mr. Tran Nam, Deputy Director of Viglacera Trading Joint Stock Company, when discovering that its products were counterfeit, the Company, despite coordinating with market management forces, still could not completely handle the situation.

“The sanctions are too light, making sellers of counterfeit goods fearless and allowing them to openly support illegal activities. We propose that there should be stronger sanctions to combat counterfeit goods and to give businesses confidence in this effort,” Mr. Nam suggested.

Nguyen Duc Hiep, member of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Steel Corporation, said that to deal with this problem, Vietnam Steel Corporation has established an Anti-Counterfeiting Team to investigate and receive information; coordinate with relevant authorities to handle when detecting subjects producing and trading counterfeit goods, develop a handling process when detecting counterfeit goods to be able to respond promptly, participate in the VATAP Association, establish relationships with state management agencies in the fight against counterfeit goods to coordinate promptly when handling.

According to Baodautu