Seminar notes improvements of IP rights protection

On the sidelines of a two-day workshop entitled “The Cross Cutting Issues of WTO Accession” opened in Hanoi o­n July 3, US lawyer Thomas J. Treutler said foreign investors are encouraged by the fact that the country has built a legal corridor for the implementation of intellectual property rights with the Law o­n Intellectual Property Rights as the backbone.
The law, which came into effect almost two years ago, is said to match international standards and treaties Vietnam has joined.
Treutler cited as an example the deal reached between Sony Entertainment, o­ne of the world’s biggest film producers, and o­ne of Vietnam’s domestic agencies in putting authentic products o­n the local market.
However, he suggested Vietnam further strengthen the enforcement of the law, especially in the business community.
Prof. David A. Gantz from the University of Arizona of the US, said that Vietnam should build a well-publicised anti-piracy campaign and implement criminal penalties for wilful infringement in commercial quantities.
Vietnam should also consider creating a specialised court or court with exclusive jurisdiction over intellectual property cases, he added.
The fifth annual Bussiness Software Alliance (BSA) and IDC Global Software Piracy Study which was released in May said that in 2007, Vietnam registered the most considerable decrease in software piracy rate among Asia-Pacific nations. However, as the rate fell from 88 percent in 2006 to 85 percent in 2006, economic losses from piracy doubled the 2006 figure to 200 million USD.
Besides IP rights, the workshop, jointly held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the World Bank, will focus o­n Vietnam’s trade, services, institutional reform, industrial policy, social welfare and communications issues during the country’s almost two year membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).