According to statistics in 2004, among the world’s renowned brand names, the trademark value of Nike was US$9.2 billion, Gap (US$7.87 billion), Gucci (US$4.75 billion), Adidas (US$3.74 billion) and
A strong and expensive trademark is termed by economic experts as an effective competitive tool and an important measure for consumers’ trust in products and services.
For example, Electronic products bearing popular brand names such as Toshiba,
When
However, many Vietnamese enterprises have not yet devised necessary measures to protect their trademarks as only 25 percent of around 200,000 enterprises in the country have registered for trademark protection. In addition, of 100,000 trademarks registered for protection in
Results from the project to assist Vietnamese enterprises to build and promote their trademarks showed that building and promoting trademarks is the second interest after product consumption. Only 16 percent of surveyed enterprises had a section in charge of marketing, 74 percent of enterprises spent less than 5 percent of their revenue on trademark building, and 20 percent of enterprises cared nothing about trademarks.
Enterprises must change themselves
While Vietnamese enterprises are not much interested in building and promoting trademarks, foreign enterprises have found many ways to promote and register for trademark protection. They even exploit well-known Vietnamese trademarks through transferring trademarks. For instance, Unilever has spent US$5 million buying P/S trademark as well as exploiting Phu Quoc Island to build Knorr Phu Quoc fish sauce trademark.
A lack of interest in trademark leads to a lack of business strategy, investment in marketing in general and trademark building in particular. Therefore, competitive disadvantages are inevitable.
As a result, Vietnamese enterprises will not be able to directly export their products to foreign markets if they fail to register trademarks for their products in time.
On the domestic market, Vietnamese enterprises will likely face legal and financial difficulties arising from disputes over market shares, not to mention tough competition with foreign enterprises operating in the country.
It is clear that during the integration process, registration for trademark protection in Vietnam and foreign countries is an urgent need for Vietnamese enterprises, particularly those which have engaged in export activities or are going to enter the fray. This is a job that enterprises must do on their own, without relying on the State or any organisations.
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