Businesses meet “sharks” when “swimming into the big sea”!

Recently, the story of intellectual property infringement has heated up around the litigation story between Sconnect (Vietnam) and EO (UK). This is a typical and complicated copyright dispute and so far has not been completely resolved with huge losses belonging to Vietnamese enterprises.

It is a copyright dispute over the animated series about Wolfoo wolf of Sconnect Vietnam Technology and Services Investment Co., Ltd (Sconnect) and the animated series about Peppa Pig (Vietnamized name “Peppa Pig”), of Entertainment One UK Limited (referred to as EO – headquartered in London, England).

The animated series about 5-year-old Wolfoo wolf is known as a product of Sconnect, launched in June 2018, shown on YouTube and many social networking platforms, television, and online. As an entertaining and educational product for young audiences from 2 to 8 years old, up to now, there have been 2,700 Wolfoo episodes translated into more than 17 languages, playing on many platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, etc. TikTok, Netflix, TV channels, online platforms of many countries from 2018 to present.

And Peppa Pig (Vietnamese name “Peppa Pig”) is a character in a series of animated films for preschool age, first broadcast in 2004 in the UK. The film received a lot of positive feedback and was produced for 6 seasons as of 2019.

Create Peppa Pig (top) and Wolfoo (bottom) character

From the beginning of 2022 until now, Sconnect and EO have continuously sued each other in the UK, Russia and Vietnam… about copyright infringement. Although there has not been any judgment that Sconnect infringes copyright, YouTube has removed all videos published by Sconnect on its platform.

This has caused enormous damage to Vietnamese enterprises.

Need companionship from regulatory authorities and professional associations

The above case is just an example that, in the process of development, businesses participating in the digital economy are facing great challenges.

These issues were specifically shared in the Seminar “Protecting intellectual property rights for Vietnamese businesses in the digital environment” recently organized by the Vietnam Information Technology Journalists Club (ICT Press Club) takes place September 28, 2022.

According to Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Media Development (IPS), it seems that Vietnamese businesses are still not ready legally when participating in the global environment. This is a business-business dispute and will follow a civil dispute. Therefore, State management agencies cannot participate in assisting in resolving these disputes. Mr. Dong recommended that businesses should carefully study legal regulations, especially in the international environment, focusing on building evidence that they are the legal owners of such content products.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Communication Development (IPS)

Lawyer Ha Lien, Law Office Phan Law said that in order to reach out to the international market, businesses must first be conscious of protecting themselves. The most important issue for businesses when participating in the common playing field is to establish their rights in accordance with the law. If reaching out to the international market, intending to do business in any country, they have to register to establish their own trademark in that country. With copyright, Vietnam is a member of the Berne Convention, when automatically protected in Vietnam will be automatically protected in 180 other countries around the world, ie without registration. Businesses must separate to determine what intellectual property they have and find ways to protect it. “Self-protection is the most important thing, avoiding “lock the barn door after the horse is gone” in today’s modernized digital mechanism, the development of disputes leading to damage is very rapid and unpredictable,” the lawyer said.

Lawyer Ha Lien, Law Office Phan Law

Many people think that economic integration, including the digital economy, opens up many opportunities and brings great benefits to Vietnamese businesses, but it also comes with many challenges. In particular, the legal corridor on intellectual property in Vietnam is not strong enough sanctions and effective tools to fight monopoly, fight against unfair competition, and protect Vietnamese enterprises. In that context, it is necessary to have the role of “supporting platform” of state agencies, professional associations, etc. to solve problems together.

The elevator industry also has similar problems

The complexity of international copyright disputes, or the difficulty of Vietnamese enterprises when having disputes mentioned in this article, is similar to the problems of the elevator industry. That is the status of industrial design violations, counterfeit goods, imitation goods, poor quality goods, goods of unknown origin that have seriously affected the interests of consumers, distribution and installation enterprises, and manufacturers. We are also interested in the involvement of the management agencies and the role of associations and professional associations in supporting their members to overcome difficulties and obstacles.

Vietnam Elevator Association (VNEA) is a socio-professional organization operating regularly, not for profit, for the purpose of gathering and uniting members, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the Association and its members, also help and support each other to operate effectively, contributing to the construction and socio-economic development of the country.

The elevator market in the trend of opening and integrating also has disputes and violations related to trademark copyright, industrial design violation or counterfeiting, counterfeiting of branded goods, infringing on user rights and by domestic and foreign manufacturers. And when VNEA received feedback from users, businesses whose rights were violated intervened very early, drastically and effectively supported businesses and users to the end of the matter.

Typically, in January 2022, VNEA and Elevator Magazine received complaints from customers and businesses about information about a type of traction machine being counterfeited. Immediately after receiving information from people and businesses, VNEA directed Elevator Magazine to find out about the incident. Along with that, the Association has worked directly with foreign manufacturers, verified and clarified to promptly inform readers, consumers and businesses.

With the prompt, responsible and effective intervention of VNEA and Elevator Magazine, providing signs to identify genuine products from the manufacturer, customers have received authentic traction machine, suppliers Products in Vietnam are “vindicated”, foreign manufacturers can protect their brands.

After receiving a request from the Association, the German manufacturer Ziehl-Abegg has provided information and signs to identify authentic Ziehl-Abegg traction machine.

It was a case of counterfeiting of a foreign traction machine brand that was reported to the Association and solved thoroughly and effectively. But there are other violations that have not been fully resolved so far. In 2017, an enterprise in Binh Duong signed a contract to install 4 Mitsubishi elevators with a total value of VND 2.6 billion. When taking over, businesses suspect that the installed elevators are not authentic Mitsubishi, so they constantly ask the seller to supplement and clarify invoices and documents. However, the seller did not fulfill this request, even then “lost contact”. Later information from a representative of Mitsubishi Asia confirmed that this was a fake. The damage is very obvious with large amounts of money but so far the matter is not over.

Or there are many other similar cases. That said, there are also many sales units that put profit above all else, even doing fraudulent business, producing and providing poor quality goods, making fake goods, imitation goods, lowering the minimum price to competition in any way… not only damages users but also worsens the image, creating bad prejudices about “Vietnamese enterprises” in the eyes of the international community.

Like the cartoon character copyright dispute mentioned above, when there was no conclusion of the international courts, Youtube automatically removed all the videos published by Sconnect on its platform, causing damage for Vietnamese businesses just because they can prejudice Sconnect to imitate the character of EO. Why are Vietnamese enterprises “forced” in such conflicts of international trade and copyright? The law and international commitments are paramount, but what have businesses done to gain the trust of the community, the trust of international partners, and eliminate bad stereotypes?

In order to protect themselves and build sustainable and long-term development, eliminate bad stereotypes in the process of international integration, Vietnamese enterprises must affirm their brand position by doing business with integrity, transparency, improving business ethics, healthy competition for mutual development.

Accompanying consumers and businesses, Vietnam Elevator Association and Elevator Magazine are ready to receive and verify any feedback and information, to act as a bridge between consumers, businesses and agencies. Functions, domestic and international manufacturers to help people distinguish genuine, fake and imitation goods, contributing to helping businesses protect their brands and reputation.

For any information that needs support, please contact Hotline of Vietnam Elevator Association and Elevator Magazine – Phone number: 02473099868; Email: contact@vnea.com.vn or contact@tapchithangmay.vn