Loss of brands in foreign countries

"A short happy day", the joy of having for the first time a brand "the best rice in the world" through the World's Best Rice contest organized by The Rice Trader in 2019 of Vietnam has disappeared when the ST25 runs the risk of falling into the hands of foreign businesses. In April, the information about five US companies applyed for registration of trademark ST25 rice in this market made many people astonished. Because, ST25 rice is produced from ST25 rice bred by engineer Ho Quang Cua and a research team in Soc Trang for many years as well as being granted a plant variety protection certificate in Vietnam.

It seemed that the ST25 rice brand belonged to Vietnam was obvious, but in fact, this trademark registration application of an American enterprise was accepted and published on May 4. Within 30 days, if neither party objects to this application, we could lose the ST25 brand of rice in the US market. The case has not ended, recently, there is information about Australian businesses registering for protection of the trademark of ST25 rice in this market.

In fact, this is not the first time Vietnamese brands have been faced with being taken over in foreign markets. Because of the scope of trademark protection is limited to only each country, businesses are often concentrated in the domestic market, so they only register for protection in the country, not file for trademark protection in foreign countries. However, in many cases, when the business develops more, wants to expand the market, it is discovered that its trademark has been registered for protection by another party. After the ST25 incident, many previous lessons were repeated, such as Phu Quoc fish sauce, Buon Me Thuot coffee, Ben Tre coconut candy that were quickly registered by foreign enterprises in foreign countries.