HCM City (VNA) - Lack of attention to registering brand names andgeographical indications is causing difficulties to Vietnamese agriculturalproducts, which are sometimes shut out of other markets after their names areusurped by others, heard a recent seminar.

Vietnam is an agricultural nation with many excellent products with the bestquality in the world, Nguyen Hong Ly, Vice Chairwoman of Vietnam Farmers Union(VFU), said at the “Intellectual property rights forVietnamese agricultural products” seminar held in Ho Chi Minh City on October 31.

However, only a few localities, organisations and enterprises haveinternationally registered intellectual property rights, and only some havebecome internationally prestigious ones, she added.

According to Ly, Vietnam there are around 800 prestigious agricultural,forestry and seafood products in 720 localities but only 50 geographicalindications and 140 brand names have been registered.

Ly pointed out that prestigious brand names make tracing origins easy.

She said intellectual property rights bring prestige to products and affect prices andbuyers’ preferences, but Vietnamese enterprises and organisations have notfocused on them. Farmers have no knowledge about intellectual property rights and procedures toregister seem very complicated.

“We must change the situation by providing education and information about theimportance of intellectual property rights and make all related authorities andfarmers aware of them,” Ly stressed.

Intellectual property rights will protect the reputation of specialities andbrand names, prevent fake products, encourage diversified production, stabiliserural areas, and make users notice good products, she affirmed.

Prof Vo Tong Xuan, principal of South Can Tho University, emphasised to ensure theeffective protection of intellectual property rights for Vietnamese agricultural products,it is necessary to build connection between farmers, entrepreneurs,scientists and managers, which helps create a close, effective distributionnetwork in the domestic market and enhance products’ competitiveness in theworld market.

Besides, he suggested localities subsidise and assist farmers in registeringintellectual property rights.

Intellectual property rights and brand names will be among the most importantassets for an enterprise, he said, adding Vietnamese enterprises andorganisations should pay attention to increasing the value of their brand namesand protecting their intellectual property rights.

In recent times, the VFU at levels have implemented numerous activitiessupporting farmers to build brand names for their farm produce, thus promoting consumption.After being registered intellectual property rights, products are sold at higherprices of 1.5 – 2 times. - VNA