Hanoi (VNA) - The EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA) isexpected to bring many benefits in protection of intellectual property rightsin Vietnam.

The implementation will help Vietnamese enterprises protect the results ofinvestment to creative activities from innovation of new technologies, designsand packaging to brands of products and services, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said at a conference on important commitments on intellectual property held in Hanoi on August 27.

In addition, EVFTA also provides many opportunities to access EU markets, the ministersaid, adding to enter this large market, local businesses need to meet theregulations on protection, exploitation and realisation of intellectualproperty rights and know clearly about technical barriers in trade of thismarket.

Businesses must focus on raising awareness about intellectual property as wellas improve technology and the ability to absorb advanced technology to improvequality, he said.

The EVFTA is a comprehensive and high quality agreement covering many issues,including intellectual property. This is a new issue appearing in a few FTAsthat Vietnam has joined according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

In the current trend of deep integration, a strong intellectual property systemis the basis for a country to control activities of business and brandprotection.

This helps attract investment from multinational companies and increase accessto advanced technologies. It will also create an environment and legal corridorfor individuals and organisations to develop innovative ideas and bring tomarket products with high quality and applicability.

However, the commitments on intellectual property under the EVFTA will createsignificant challenges for domestic law revision.

In addition, general awareness aboutinfringement of intellectual property rights is still low while Vietnamintegrates further into the world, so it is necessary to increase the awarenessof the public and enterprises about EVFTA's commitments in this issue.

Tran Huu Linh, Director General of the General Department for MarketSurveillance, said to improve efficiency in protecting intellectual propertyrights, Vietnam needed to develop a national strategy. It should also improveprofessional qualification of intellectual property and performance of publicduties at the State functional authorities.

In addition, it should increase efficiency of disseminating legal knowledge aswell as learn experience and get support from international organisations inthe enforcement of intellectual property rights.

At the conference, Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of the WTO Integration Centreunder the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said TechnologicalProtection Measures (TPMs) not only applied for production, import,distribution, assembly, sale and rental, but also for storage with commercial andadvertisement purposes.

Meanwhile, rights management information (RMI) not only protects originalinformation, but also the information in copies and the public release.

EVFTA's commitments are higher than WTO in terms of increasing the rights ofthe court in deciding temporary measures for not only violating entities, butalso those who are storing violated goods.

Trang said these commitments not only helped them increase economic benefits,increase creative motivation but also contribute to cost savings and beconfident to register intellectual property rights protection. - VNA