Vietnam will spend roughly 600 million USD on a lawsuit that aims toregain the Buon Ma Thuot coffee trademark from foreign businesses, saidTrinh Minh Duc, Deputy Director of the Dak Lak Department of Science andTechnology.
The move was made after it was found thatthe trademark of Buon Ma Thuot coffee from the Central Highlandsprovince of Dak Lak has been registered in China for monopoly protectionfor 10 years, while the Dak Lak coffee trademark has also beenregistered by a French company in more than 10 different countries since1997.
Of the total 600 million USD, the Dak Lak People'sCommittee will contribute half of the funds while the rest will comefrom members of the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association and theIntellectual Property Department under the Ministry of Science andTechnology.
Duc, who is also vice chairman of the Buon MaThuot Coffee Association, told Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) that thelawsuit could last two to three years, adding that the Vietnam CoffeeAssociation had so far received proposals from four domestic law firmsto help it take part in the legal action.
Experts andlawyers say that Vietnam has a basic right and legal evidence tosue the Chinese company as according to Chinese patent laws, if aforeign geographic name is widely known by the Chinese public,businesses are not allowed to register and use it as their own brandname.
Tran Huu Nam, deputy director of the VietnamIntellectual Property Office, said that there were some similaritiesbetween the Law on Intellectual Property Rights among differentcountries, particularly the principle of "the first to file and first touse." However, the law also says that in case the person ororganisation that owns the trademark is not the applicant to file forthat disputed trade mark, then the former may still secure legalownership of the trademark."
Spanning more than 100,000hain the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, Buon Ma Thuot isconsidered Vietnam's largest coffee growing area with an annualproduction of 300,000 tonnes and exports to 60 countries./.
The move was made after it was found thatthe trademark of Buon Ma Thuot coffee from the Central Highlandsprovince of Dak Lak has been registered in China for monopoly protectionfor 10 years, while the Dak Lak coffee trademark has also beenregistered by a French company in more than 10 different countries since1997.
Of the total 600 million USD, the Dak Lak People'sCommittee will contribute half of the funds while the rest will comefrom members of the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association and theIntellectual Property Department under the Ministry of Science andTechnology.
Duc, who is also vice chairman of the Buon MaThuot Coffee Association, told Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) that thelawsuit could last two to three years, adding that the Vietnam CoffeeAssociation had so far received proposals from four domestic law firmsto help it take part in the legal action.
Experts andlawyers say that Vietnam has a basic right and legal evidence tosue the Chinese company as according to Chinese patent laws, if aforeign geographic name is widely known by the Chinese public,businesses are not allowed to register and use it as their own brandname.
Tran Huu Nam, deputy director of the VietnamIntellectual Property Office, said that there were some similaritiesbetween the Law on Intellectual Property Rights among differentcountries, particularly the principle of "the first to file and first touse." However, the law also says that in case the person ororganisation that owns the trademark is not the applicant to file forthat disputed trade mark, then the former may still secure legalownership of the trademark."
Spanning more than 100,000hain the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, Buon Ma Thuot isconsidered Vietnam's largest coffee growing area with an annualproduction of 300,000 tonnes and exports to 60 countries./.
