Linking the Issue of Intellectual Property Rights Protection with the Protection of National Interests, Serving the Socio-Economic Development Goals of the Country

Vietnam needs to carry out a series of comprehensive and synchronous innovations related to other socio-economic fields.

3.1.4. Linking the issue of intellectual property rights protection with the protection of national interests, serving the country's socio-economic development goals

In formulating and implementing policies on intellectual property rights to meet the requirements of the international economic integration process, we must be aware that intellectual property rights are closely related to economic and development issues, not just purely legal factors. Therefore, on the one hand, we must strive to achieve international standards, but on the other hand, we need to have careful consideration, including finding ways to minimize the initial negative impacts caused by having to protect the intellectual property rights of foreign entities. In other words, it is only applying protection requirements within the narrowest possible scope, while cleverly applying reservations, limitations, and exceptions to rights within the widest possible scope. Because defining the scope of rights too broadly and limiting rights too narrowly also means that national interests cannot be guaranteed, because the vast majority of people entitled to protection are foreign entities. In addition, to a certain extent, it is necessary to create certain conditions for domestic enterprises to easily imitate foreign technology through simulation and reverse engineering (disassembling machinery and equipment, or analyzing chemicals to learn technological secrets and processing formulas). The experience of Taiwan and South Korea in the 60s, 70s and 80s of the last century in importing and copying technology from Japan and other advanced countries, or from South Africa and Brazil today, has shown the effectiveness of this approach. That requires us to exploit the flexibility and exceptions allowed by the TRIPs Agreement, especially the provisions on special and differential treatment for underdeveloped and developing countries, and on the other hand, we should find ways to limit the excessive protection of intellectual property by the West in order to achieve the maximum benefits from the implementation of the Agreement and minimize the disadvantages that the Agreement may cause. Indeed, this is also an issue.

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Equally important and difficult is the need to innovate the system of policies and laws on intellectual property rights to suit the trend of international integration, and this requires Vietnam to have good experts in the field of intellectual property law to be able to come up with wise policies to achieve both of the above difficult goals.

3.2. Solutions

3.2.1. Perfecting the system of policies and laws on intellectual property rights protection in the direction of complying with the provisions of the TRIPs Agreement

- Supplementing legal provisions to resolve issues arising in the implementation of the Law on Intellectual Property . The Law on Intellectual Property 2005 is a synthesis of provisions related to intellectual property from many legal documents. It can be said that this is a fairly comprehensive document, highly synthetic, and at the same time quite complete and specific. Many specific legal provisions that can be implemented immediately are reflected in the Law. The decrees guiding the implementation of the Law on Intellectual Property issued by the Government in September 2006 are being implemented. In the coming time, depending on the specific requirements of each field, the Ministries can issue documents guiding the resolution of issues arising during the implementation process, especially regulations on handling acts of infringement of intellectual property rights, regulations on resolving issues related to domain names (under the management of the Ministry of Information and Communications) and trademarks (under the management of the Ministry of Science and Technology), unfair competition (under the management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade) and unfair competition in industrial property (under the management of the Ministry of Science and Technology). This system of documents can ensure that the implementation of the provisions of the Law on Intellectual Property is carried out synchronously, ensuring the feasibility of the law in practice. Building a complete legal framework on intellectual property protection with full management regulations, sanctions... easy to apply in practice is very necessary. That is not

not only enhances the effectiveness of intellectual property protection but also meets the requirements of international economic integration.

- Gradually revise some provisions of the Law on Intellectual Property to comply with the TRIPs Agreement. As mentioned above, compared to the standards of the TRIPs Agreement, the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property still has some points that are not completely compatible, the cause of which is the need to protect and defend the young economy from the strict regulations of the TRIPs Agreement. This is completely legitimate for an underdeveloped country like Vietnam. However, when entering the world arena, it means that we have to accept the international rules of the game and thus, the self-protection regulations for Vietnam as above violate the principles of the Agreement. Because, according to the TRIPs Agreement, there is no exception for developing countries unless that exception does not harm the interests of other countries or that exception still ensures that intellectual property rights are exercised normally. Therefore, we need to prepare to amend, supplement and perfect the 2005 Intellectual Property Law to best comply with international commitments, while causing the least difficulty to the national economy in the early stages of implementing the TRIPs Agreement.

- Join international conventions on intellectual property. Vietnam needs to have a plan to prepare to join a number of other international conventions under the provisions of the TRIPs Agreement, such as the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations...

- Regulations on Internet domain names. Currently, there is a very important emerging intellectual property issue that the TRIPs Agreement has not yet addressed, which is Internet domain names. However, recognizing the significance of this issue, many countries have legal regulations regulating intellectual property rights for domain names. There are a number of organizations that manage the registration, renewal and transfer of domain names depending on the ending part of the alphanumeric addresses. For example, addresses ending in the country code “fr” or “uk” will be subject to French and English law, respectively.

Domains ending in “edu” are managed by Educause, a US non-governmental organization, under an agreement with the US Department of Commerce. Because domain names contain a lot of information related to the company’s name and brand, domain names are not considered as mere addresses. From the beginning, domain names have been considered the property of businesses and domain names have been registered for commercial purposes. Many domain names ending in “com” have been registered and sold for huge fees, and this has been accompanied by illegal registrations and domain name disputes. For example, after a travel agency registered the domain name “Barcelona.com”, they were sued by the city of Barcelona, Spain, to reclaim the domain name. Such actions are considered “cybersquatting”. From this reality, people have had to establish procedures to prevent illegal domain name registrations or resolve disputes related to domain names. Regarding the issue of Internet domain names, Vietnam needs to have specific legal regulations, possibly adding this issue to an appropriate decree issued by the Government.

3.2.2. Strengthening the effectiveness of enforcement of policies and laws on intellectual property rights protection

The most difficult issue related to the protection of intellectual property rights in Vietnam is the enforcement of policies and legal regulations on intellectual property rights protection. To carry out this task, Vietnam must pay attention to all necessary factors to create a fertile ground to maintain the development of intellectual property culture, such as educating the community on respect for intellectual property rights, reorganizing and strengthening the capacity of agencies managing and enforcing intellectual property rights, training on intellectual property rights at universities, research centers, etc. Because intellectual property can only develop healthily in a culture where the importance of intellectual property rights is fully understood and accepted and where it is protected by law and the law is effectively and efficiently enforced. Specifically, to keep up with the trend of international integration and fully promote the important role and influence of intellectual property rights, Vietnam's legal system on intellectual property rights must be developed in a manner that is consistent with the trend of international integration and fully promotes the important role and influence of intellectual property rights.

The following conditions must be met: (i) the provisions of the law on intellectual property rights must be consistent with practical requirements and be complete and clear enough to be understood and enforced correctly and consistently; (ii) the agencies responsible for enforcing the law must be competent; and (iii) awareness of the content of the laws must be widely conveyed to the public, especially those directly affected and regulated. All three of these conditions are essential elements that form the infrastructure of any intellectual property protection system. To achieve that, Vietnam needs to have appropriate policies and measures.

3.2.2.1. Raising public awareness of intellectual property rights protection

- Education, training and dissemination of laws on intellectual property rights to create an intellectual property culture: In all fields, in order to be able to successfully implement, the human factor always plays a key role. Therefore, education, training and dissemination of laws on intellectual property rights are very necessary. It is important to create an ideology on intellectual property rights, from the people to businesses and state officials. Vietnam's weakness is that not only the people are not aware of intellectual property, but also the management agencies and the business community do not take this issue seriously. Therefore, it is necessary to divide the subjects and conduct appropriate forms of education and propaganda for each group to raise awareness of the people and businesses about the need to respect the contents of intellectual property rights in order to limit infringement of intellectual property rights by domestic and foreign entities in Vietnam. The authorities need to study and introduce educational programs on intellectual property rights into schools at all levels and carry out propaganda through the mass media. This is very meaningful because one of the reasons leading to acts of infringement of intellectual property rights or not being aware of the importance of intellectual property rights is the limited and incomplete awareness of intellectual property rights laws. Talking about intellectual property culture means creating a way of life and a correct and complete concept of intellectual property rights for the whole society, not just requiring individual efforts. If right now

Even those involved, such as those who create literary and artistic works or inventions, are not aware of their rights or do not have legal knowledge of intellectual property rights, so no matter how hard we try, we will not be effective.

- Enhance the awareness of enterprises on the issue of intellectual property rights: This is an urgent time, if not too late, for Vietnamese enterprises to fully recognize the issue of intellectual property rights in a market economy. Enterprises must be aware of their responsibilities and rights in the issue of intellectual property rights protection and must consider their intellectual property as an important asset in production and business activities, otherwise they will suffer great losses. Enterprises must clearly identify issues related to all activities from naming the enterprise to choosing the design and brand of the products and services they produce and trade... In particular, enterprises need to arrange a department to take care of intellectual property rights to carry out procedures to establish rights and organize the exploitation of intellectual property domestically and internationally. This issue becomes even more urgent when enterprises enter the world market. Examples of how the brands of large companies such as Vinataba cigarettes and Trung Nguyen coffee were registered by foreign companies in foreign markets are specific lessons that Vietnamese businesses need to learn from.

In order for businesses to have a thorough approach to intellectual property rights, in addition to the efforts of the businesses themselves, there needs to be synchronous support from the Government such as: building a regular information system on contents related to intellectual property rights, putting these information systems on the Internet so that businesses can establish intellectual property rights in the best way. Currently, the Government is implementing a program to support the development of intellectual property of businesses. This is a large program implemented from 2005 to 2010. The goal is to raise awareness and support Vietnamese businesses in creating, exploiting, protecting and developing intellectual property to enhance competitiveness.

- Strengthening consulting and supporting businesses on intellectual property rights: Along with raising businesses' awareness of the importance of intellectual property protection, promoting consulting activities on intellectual property rights is a very necessary activity and has a direct impact on the formation, exploitation and protection of intellectual property rights of businesses. Each business or business association needs a lawyer or consultant to regularly discuss intellectual property rights issues related to businesses' access to the world market, as well as to resolve intellectual property issues in the domestic market of those businesses. To meet this requirement, it is necessary to expand the number of people working as intellectual property consultants and legal representatives (such as law firms, legal service companies, etc.). In addition, regarding copyright and related rights, it is necessary to have professional organizations with the function of advising and acting as intermediaries for publishers in transactions and agreements on copyright and related rights with foreign partners. The cases of some Vietnamese publishers being sued by foreign parties for copyright infringement in the past are lessons that publishers need to seriously learn from. Reality in many countries shows that consulting and legal services on intellectual property rights are important in the socialization of intellectual property services, supporting intellectual property rights holders in exercising their rights and obligations in accordance with the law. The activities of these organizations contribute significantly to improving the effectiveness of the entire legal system for intellectual property protection. By the end of 2006, Vietnam had 43 industrial property representative organizations with 161 professional industrial property representatives. This is a very limited number compared to the growing potential demand for consulting on intellectual property rights. Therefore, continuing to improve the capacity of consulting organizations and expanding intellectual property services is a necessary condition for effective enforcement of intellectual property rights protection.

- Promoting the role of social organizations supporting the implementation of intellectual property rights protection: In order to innovate and perfect the apparatus for implementing intellectual property rights protection, the role of social organizations is very important. In countries with many associations such as the Asian Patent Agents Association (APAA), the European Community Trademark Association (ECTA), the International Trademark Association (INTA), etc. These associations have clear charters and platforms and operate very strongly, aiming to support government agencies, ensuring effective implementation of intellectual property rights. In Vietnam, a number of organizations such as the Industrial Property Association, the Vietnam Music Association, or the Copyright Protection Center, etc. have been established and put into operation. However, the effectiveness of these organizations is still limited, failing to fully mobilize the potential of society to strengthen intellectual property rights protection. In the coming time, the socialization of intellectual property protection work needs to be further strengthened by mobilizing the potential of all social forces in this work.

3.2.2.2. Innovation and capacity building of agencies ensuring enforcement of intellectual property rights protection

- Establish a unified agency for intellectual property rights management, perfecting the state management system for intellectual property rights from the central to the grassroots level . This is a necessary issue because activities related to intellectual property rights take place and impact all economic, social, and technological fields, and the principles governing those activities need to be unified and unified. Uniting intellectual property rights management agencies will create more favorable conditions for rights holders with simpler and more convenient procedures for establishing rights, and at the same time help better enforce intellectual property rights laws, because it avoids overlapping functions among management agencies. In this regard, Singapore's experience is worth learning. Singapore recognizes the importance of intellectual property to its economy, both as a national resource and as a factor attracting foreign investment. To develop intellectual property into a strategic and highly competitive asset, Singapore established the Intellectual Property Office - a semi-autonomous agency.

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