Foreign brand owners raise lawsuits against Vietnamese imitators

Adidas and Gucci, Honda and Microsoft, Louis Vuitton and Kimberly Clark Worldwide have one after another, sued the Vietnamese producers who counterfeited their products, imitated their trademarks and the industrial design protected by Vietnamese laws.

The story of “Koteir” and “Kotex”

Lawyer Le Xuan Loc from the Pham & Associates law office, said that imitators now not only counterfeit luxurious products’ brands like Adidas and Louis Vuitton, but they also try to counterfeit consumer goods’ brands. The counterfeiting of Kotex-brand sanitary napkins is a typical example.

A representative of the brand of Kimberly Clark, said that in the last two years, it discovered a lot of products available on the market which counterfeited the real products and violated the industrial designs protected by the laws.

He said that the products have been selling nationwide and believed to be made in Hanoi, Bac Ninh province or HCM City.

In June 2011, the market management taskforce in Nho Quan district in Ninh Binh district discovered the sanitary napkins with the “Koteir” brand available on the market. After that, in July 2011, the Bac Ninh provincial police discovered a car carrying 31,200 napkins with “Koteir” brand. The products were sourced from the workshop of Vu Thi Son, located in Gia Lam district in Hanoi.

On August 3, 2011, when the inspectors from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), the Hanoi police and officers of the Pham & Associates law office inspected Son’s workshop, they discovered 3840 sanitary napkins with “Koteir” brand. A nylon roll with the Kotex brand symbol was also found here, which was believed to be used to make counterfeited products.

On August 9, 2011, MST’s inspectors released the decision on imposing the fine of 4.2 million dong and forcing Son to remove the “Koteir” signs on the 3840 sanitary napkins.

The move by Kimberly Clark shows that the owners of well-known brands have been determined to join forces with competent agencies to clear up the counterfeit goods, according to Loc.

Just a “small flame”

However, the owners of many well-known brands are not as lucky as Kimberly Clark. Tran Dinh Thi, Deputy Director of MyLan Company, the owner of MyLan paper brand, said that his company has been making every effort to fight against counterfeited goods, but the results remain modest. He complained that there are less real MyLan paper products available on the market than counterfeit products.

“We once had the counterfeited samples tested and found out that the material to make the counterfeited products is recycled paper, which may badly affect people’s health,” Thi said.

He went on to say that since 2009, MyLan has been teaming up with competent agencies to launch the campaigns of finding counterfeit goods in Ninh Hiep commune in Gia Lam district, Van Canh commune in Hoai Duc district, and in Dinh Bang district in Bac Ninh province. After every campaign, counterfeited goods disappeared from the market for a short time before they turned up again.

Perfetti Van Melle, the owner of Happydent, Alpenliebe, Golia, Mentos, Big Babol, Chupa Chups brands for sweets, also said that he is considering raising lawsuits against the Vietnamese producers who illegally use the registered brands. The representative of the company said that the company has discovered the big workshops that make counterfeit goods in Hoai Duc district in Hanoi.

He stressed that the main customers of the sweets are children; therefore, competent agencies should not ignore the violations.

However, analysts have warned that it will be not easy for Perfetti Van Melle or MyLan to eliminate counterfeit goods. The imitators, if found, will just have to pay small fines which prove to make no significance if compared with the profits they can earn from counterfeiting goods.

According to Lawyer Tran Manh Hung from Baker & McKenzie, the administrative measures are not powerful enough to prevent violations. A lot of producers would repeat offences after they pay the fine. Meanwhile, very few enterprises want to take legal proceedings to force the violators to compensate for the losses caused by them, because it always takes time and money to follow the complicated legal procedures.

Source: SGTT