The trademark story is no longer strange, but it has never been "hot" for businesses. People often talk about the phrase "brand" such as Vietnamese milk brand Vinamilk, Bitis - Embrace Vietnamese feet or Samsung, KFC, etc., but the core element to create the brand that people still talk about is a trademark. The trademark is not difficult to imagine, for example, just mentioning the image of a missing apple in the right corner, most people know that the brand being mentioned here is Apple - one of the biggest electronics industries. So how valuable is the brand name that can create the identity and reputation of such an enterprise?
Revolving around trademark stories
Trademarks under Intellectual Property Law are signs, words or these elements combine created to distinguish goods and services between different owners, especially enterprises in the same group of products and services. Knowing that, but many enterprises have had to "laugh and cry" with ironic situations from the story of the trademark.
When countries began to open up to international integration, and the promotion of imports of goods between countries was the top goal, the story of cross-border trademark protection was followed. And the story of not registering for trademark protection in time has become an alarm bell for businesses that have been, are and will enter a new market. The Meet More Coffee brand is a specific example of this case. Accordingly, after exporting a few orders to Korea, this business has filed a trademark protection application for Meet More Coffee in Korea. However, based on the principle of "first-to-file", the Meet More Coffee trademark was rejected because Meet More Coffee's distribution partner in Korea was "going ahead of the curve" in filing this trademark application. But fortunately, the owner of the Meet More Coffee trademark has successfully negotiated with a distribution partner in Korea to have the right to register the Meet More Coffee trademark in Korea. However, not all cases will be as lucky as Meet More Coffee.
Trademarks help build a brand and are a symbol of an enterprise's reputation
Trademark is a symbol of enterprise identity. The name, phrase, symbol, logo, and original design that an enterprise creates for a trademark helps clients identify its products and services. For example, standing from afar, but just seeing the image of a yellow dome, people immediately know that it is McDonald's. Clients are willing to spending a higher amount of money to use and experience a product or service bearing a trademark that they like and have a "reputation" on the market. It can be seen that a trademark is an intangible asset, but it is very important to enterprises in the process of goods circulation. Clients will not need to care what the meaning or reason of creating an enterprise's trademark is, but just an easy to remember and impressive trademark that will easier improve trademark recognition and attract many clients than other trademarks. That helps the products and services of the enterprise gain a positive reputation and coverage in the market.
In addition, if the trademark guarantees that the commercial origin is the same, then clients can count on the similarity in composition and quality of the goods bearing the trademark and the advertised value of the trademark. This requires that there must be a definite legal relationship between the goods bearing the trademark and the owner of the trademark. From the basic function of a trademark, which is to help clients identify the goods and products of each enterprise, there are many other functions that it performs in economic life. Accordingly, the function of determining quality is dominant in the client's mind, while the function of being public in the market is dominant in the producer's mind. However, from a legal perspective, the key function of a trademark is like an indication of origin that indicates who and where the product is from. Only when the purpose of a trademark, to distinguish goods of different origins is maintained, the trademark can take on more of a role and become an effective trade promotion tool. And only then, does a trademark perform its function of protecting its owner from harm to their reputation.
Protect your own trademark
To prevent competitors from copying and stealing their brands and prevent future legal problems, enterprises should protect themselves by registering for trademark protection before putting their products or services before bringing them to clients. Currently, Vietnam is a member of the TRIPS Agreement [1], the Madrid Agreement [2], the Protocol related to the Madrid Agreement of 1989 of the World Intellectual Property Organization and several other bilateral agreements. Trademark protection in foreign countries, especially member countries of these Agreements become easier. Hence, do not let the mentality of waiting or procrastinating but make your business into the laugh and cry stories about trademarks and brands.
[1]: Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
[2]: Regarding trademark registration in 1891, revised in 1979