HCM City (VNA) – Senior officials of theAPEC economies discussed issues related to the implementation of intellectualproperty in border areas, fake commodities and brand violations during a conferenceheld by the Intelligence Property Rights Experts Group (IPEG) in Ho Chi MinhCity on August 24.

They debated a wide range of matters related to theeffect of brand violations to the brand owners and consumers as well as theeconomy, the role of customs in implementing property rights in border areas,and the future trends in the field.

Experts from some APEC economies share theirexperience in handling property rights violations in the border, which areuseful for Vietnam in settling violations in goods transit and export.

Le Ngoc Lam, Vice Director of the IntellectualProperty Department under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that thehandling of violations in goods for export and in transit is not under thecoverage of property rights protection, but it seriously affects the propertyrights at higher level.

At the conference, Vietnamese experts also clarifiedthe real situation of violations when transporting goods through the border.

Vietnam is handling the violations in conformity withthe Intellectual Property Law and the Customs Law in the framework of theAgreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

However, Lam said that the real requirements in propertyrights are beyond the TRIPS, thus they are likely under the coverage of freetrade agreements. The conference is a chance for Vietnam to review issuesrelated to property rights protection, thus becoming ready to roll outeffective measures in the future.-VNA