Delegates from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar discussed issuesrelated to intellectual property and trademarks in their countries at aworkshop in Hanoi on September 8.

Deputy Director of theNational Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) Tran Huu Namstressed the importance of IP and trademark building to the developmentof enterprises all over the world.

Vietnam and othersdeveloping countries need to come up with solutions to promote andutilize those tools efficiently in gaining competitive advantages atglobal market, he added.

David Faulks, Managing Director ofGeneration Alliance, an Australian strategic brand consultancy,recommended that Vietnam should determine its key products in connectionwith special features of local geography, communities and stories toattract target customers before building comprehensive brand strategies.

According to Nguyen Quoc Thinh, a lecturer from VietnamUniversity of Commerce, most domestic companies, while aware of theimportance of brands, trademarks and inventions, fail to see thepotential of franchise and other similar commercial activities, thus fewof them applied for patents. Some 39 percent of Vietnamese enterprisesdo not even know where and how to register for IP rights.-VNA