Vietnam still fumbles in the fight against counterfeit goods

December 2, 2011  about Uncategorized

LookAtVietnam - Nearly all the high quality products which have high
sales have been counterfeited. Businesses have lost billions of dong because of
the counterfeit goods, while state management agencies still fumble in the fight
against counterfeiters.

When counterfeit goods look more beautiful than real goods
Nguyen Huu Vinh, Deputy Personnel and Administration Division of LG Vina, the
owner of cosmetics brands of Essance, Ohui and Whoo, said that counterfeit goods
not only cause reputational damage, but also badly affect the sales of the
enterprise.
He said that the turnover of the company in the last few years just reached
70-75 percent of the expected level, despite thorough market survey and
preparation for sale campaigns, because real goods have to compete with
counterfeit goods in the market.
Also according to Vinh, in the past, the products with Essance brand were most
counterfeited, because the products have reasonable prices. Previously,
counterfeit goods were made in HCM City and neighboring provinces. Nowadays,
they are made in China and then carried illegally to Vietnam.
“The packing of the products looks very good, and in some cases, it looks even
more beautiful than that of real goods,” he said. For example, the packing
sample which LG Vietnam ordered in South Korea contained errors. Meanwhile, the
error cannot be found in the counterfeit goods
Nguyen Ba Cuong Truc from Nghia Pincers Company said that on November 15, the
company, joining hands with the investigation agencies, discovered counterfeit
goods at two shops in Hanoi.
Truc said that though the company regularly examines the doubtful points of sale
and takes drastic measures to request sales agents to comply with the
commitments on refusing counterfeit goods, the company cannot be sure that all
the sales agents follow the promises.
Meanwhile, sales agents well understand that they would pocket huge profit when
selling counterfeit goods, which is double the profit they gain when selling
real goods.
Truc’s principle is that the thing that needs to do to fight against counterfeit
goods not to eliminate sales agents, but to guide consumers how to differentiate
real goods and counterfeit goods.
According to Lawyer Chau Huy Quang from LCT Law Firm, even the anti-counterfeit
stickers (the stamps used to stick on products to certify the real goods) also
can be counterfeited. This has made producers more puzzled in the fight against
counterfeit goods.
Meanwhile, Lawyer Tran Hai Duc said that some enterprises made real products at
first, but then they have products outsourced to Chinese producers. After the
products are made in China, they import the products and then stick their labels
to sell on the market. In this case, enterprises have their products themselves
counterfeited for bigger profits.
Enterprises and management agencies need to join hands
Do Hong Quang, Deputy Head of the Market Management Sub-department, admitted
that despite the great efforts, the sale of counterfeit and imitation goods
still continues.
Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Deputy Head of the Binh Duong provincial market management
sub-department, complained that he has got tired because of the overlapping and
contradictory regulations.
Nhan said that previously, the criminals of industrial property infringement
could face the criminal prosecution. However, other regulations stipulate that
the commercial-scale infringements would not face the criminal prosecution. Due
to the concept “commercial-scale infringement,” the agency could not take a lot
of counterfeit consignments of goods worth billions of dong into legal
proceedings.
Nhan also said that there lacks the cooperation between state management
agencies and enterprises. His sub-department asked gas trading companies to join
forces to clarify a counterfeit goods case, but none of them sent
representatives to the meeting.
Lawyer Chau Huy Quang agrees that the legal framework in fighting against
counterfeit goods is sufficient, but the implementation of the regulations is
not good.
“In the last five years, only 22 cases of intellectual property infringement
were found, which really does not truly reflect the real situation,” Quang said.
Source: TBKTSG