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AnonymousInactivehttp://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/Pages/20100918160702.aspx
TONER AND INK COUNTERFEIT ENFORCEMENT INEFFECTIVE IN VIETMAN
Enforcement bodies hamstrung by fuzzy laws and thin resources
A
market watchdog official seizes fake HP ink cartridges in Ho Chi Minh
City. A recent report says Vietnamese officials are incapable of
staunching the rapid growth of the counterfeit trade.Customs officials
and anti-counterfeit units are understaffed and lack regulatory
backbone, according to a report issued by the Central Counterfeit
Production and Distribution Fighting Board last week.The board
was joined by the ministries of Industry and Trade, Finance, and Science
and Technology, all of whom claimed that despite their efforts,
Vietnamese officials are incapable of staunching the rapid growth of the
counterfeit trade.The report’s authors described Vietnam’s regulatory
force as small and strained – about 5,000 market monitoring officials
have been scattered across 63 provinces and cities to fight an untold
force of fake goods producers.They also claimed that legislators have,
so far, failed to establish specific penalties for intellectual property
violations. Instead, a vague net of rules has been cast wide over a
range of unrelated industries.The Ministry of Industry and Trade has
announced that it is preparing a proposal that will establish specific
penalties for fake goods and is in the process of submitting the
recommendations for approval. The proposal will carry a maximum
financial penalty of VND50 million (US$2,566) per violation.In
the meantime, the authors said, Vietnamese enforcement agents face a
growing opponent.More people in local and neighboring markets are
joining the trade that traffics fake goods in and out of Vietnam through
the country’s porous, rugged border.Tran Viet Hung, head of the
National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, said 60 percent of
fake and counterfeit products were imported into the country through
these weak spots.Hung said his team was responsible for keeping an eye
on a large range of products like cosmetics, medicines, clothes, bags
and documents for tax purposes.He said the majority of the
products originated in China, which the European Union recently dubbed
the world’s “factory” for fast and easy knockoffs.Hung claimed that the
bootleggers are plaguing domestic and international manufacturers
alike.The report said that 100,000 cases of fake goods or intellectual
property violations had been discovered in the last ten years. The
report excluded an estimated 200 cases handled by investigators working
for the nation’s customs officials.Nguyen Phi Hung, deputy head
of the Smuggling Investigations Department under the General Department
of Vietnam Customs, said the figure did not begin to describe the
reality of the situation.The customs official further claimed that his
department is only empowered to investigate or refuse clearance for
shipments of products that businesses suspect of violating intellectual
properties.In this way, he alleged, the customs enforcers were somewhat
hamstrung by regulations.According to Hung, customs officials are not
allowed to undertake any long-term seizures or initiate investigations
unless they receive requests to do so from businesses or individuals.He
says the rule creates a “loophole” for imported fake goods and that the
law has turned Vietnam into a “transit” hub for fake goods destined for
other markets. -
AuthorOctober 19, 2010 at 8:08 AM
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