General Department of Customs “feels embarrassed” because of the divorce of Dang Le Nguyen Vu and his wife

Specifically, when carrying out export procedures for shipments of coffee products bearing the G7 coffee brand, the customs authority received a request to temporarily suspend the export of instant coffee shipments bearing the brands of Trung Nguyen Investment Joint Stock Company (Trung Nguyen) produced by Trung Nguyen Instant Coffee Joint Stock Company and its branches.

The reason is said to be intellectual property infringement of Trung Nguyen's trademarks.

Trung Nguyen, the owner of the Trung Nguyen and G7 brands, has asked the General Department of Customs to stop the export of goods produced by the Bac Giang branch of Trung Nguyen Instant Coffee Joint Stock Company, which is managed by Ms. Le Hoang Diep Thao, wife of Mr. Dang Le Nguyen Vu.

In addition, Trung Nguyen also sent an official dispatch requesting the market management agency to handle the sales activities of the G7 coffee brand in the domestic market produced by Ms. Le Hoang Diep Thao.

However, based on the documents and evidence provided by the parties, the Market Management Department believes that there is not enough basis to verify the subject of producing counterfeit Trung Nguyen G7 brand goods and requests that the relevant parties continue to coordinate in providing information and evidence to have enough basis to resolve the case.

Not stopping there, recently, Trung Nguyen continued to send a document to the General Department of Customs, along with a response document from the Market Management Department requesting to inspect and handle the act of producing and trading counterfeit goods with the G7 Trung Nguyen trademark against Ms. Le Hoang Diep Thao and a number of production and business establishments.

Unable to find a solution to the dispute, the General Department of Customs sent a document to the Market Management Department and the Ministry of Industry and Trade requesting coordination.

Specifically, in an official dispatch sent to the Market Management Department on June 19, the General Department of Customs said that this agency is still applying inspection and supervision measures to import and export shipments of G7 coffee products at the request of the trademark owner, Trung Nguyen Investment Joint Stock Company, based on the provisions of the Customs Law and the Intellectual Property Law.

Therefore, the General Department of Customs requests the Market Management Department to share the latest information at present related to the use of the G7 Trung Nguyen trademark so that this agency can coordinate in inspection and handling.

The dispute between Mr. Dang Le Nguyen Vu and Ms. Le Hoang Diep Thao began in April 2015, when Trung Nguyen Group decided to remove Ms. Thao from her executive position at Trung Nguyen and its member companies. Disagreeing with this decision, Ms. Thao repeatedly protested and submitted a petition to the court to restore her executive position.

The power struggle culminated with a series of accusations back and forth, followed by many intertwined lawsuits that have yet to be resolved, including the divorce between Mr. Vu and Ms. Thao. Most recently, Ms. Thao spoke out against four executives for manipulating power to rob the Trung Nguyen factory in Binh Duong, and at the same time, she said that Mr. Dang Vu was sick and could not appear in public.

However, on the evening of June 16, Trung Nguyen Chairman - Mr. Dang Le Nguyen Vu, Ms. Thao's husband, appeared at the product launch, after exactly 5 years of seclusion.

The appearance of the Trung Nguyen boss surprised many people. Mr. Vu wore a long black coat, loose white pants, a scarf around his neck, clasped his hands behind his back and addressed himself as “qua”, calling those around him his “brothers and sisters”.