Supporting businesses to register for trademark and geographical indication protection abroad: Issues that need attention
In recent years, activities to promote and support the protection of trademarks and geographical indications abroad for businesses and key local specialties and products have received attention with many mechanisms, policies and programs from the State. However, the achieved results are still modest and not as expected due to difficulties from both objective and subjective sides.
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Buon Ma Thuot coffee was protected a geographical indication in Thailand
According to statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the number of trademark registration applications of Vietnamese origin (by organizations and individuals originating from Vietnam as the application owners) is filed in the following countries: Overseas intellectual property agencies in 2022 will have more than 4,900 applications, accounting for 9.4% of the total number of applications originating from Vietnam, an increase of about 1.6 times compared to 2018. Among intellectual property agencies For foreign intellectual property, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the place that receives the most applications of Vietnamese origin with 1,049 applications, followed by Korea (104 applications), Japan (96 applications), Australia (87 applications) and the European Union EU (83 applications).
However, compared to other countries, the number of trademark applications filed in our country is still quite modest and the majority of applicants are businesses. In addition to issues of export conditions, one of the main reasons may come from the cost of trademark registration abroad, which is often relatively large for Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises, leading to the Businesses are often quite cautious when intending to register a trademark abroad. Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Finance issued Circular No. 75/2021/TT-BTC dated September 9, 2021 regulating financial management for implementing the intellectual property development program until 2030 (Circular 75), which clearly states that the level of support for trademark protection registration abroad is 60 million VND/application. This level of support is relatively suitable for the fees that need to be paid abroad, but in reality, the support activities have not really achieved the expected effectiveness.