Recently, many Vietnamese businesses have been interested in building their brands in the domestic market, but they seem to be "anonymous" in foreign markets. There are even cases where foreign businesses "steal" their brands, causing great economic losses.

It can be mentioned as the case of Phu Quoc's geographical indication for fish sauce being registered as a trademark in many countries; lost brands of Vinataba cigarettes in many territories; loss of invention, industrial design of Duy Loi in Japan in 2001, geographical indication of Buon Ma Thuot cafe in China in 2011, and etc.

According to Mr. Le Huy Anh, National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, Ministry of Science and Technology, registration and protection of intellectual property plays a key role to promote innovation. Protection of intellectual property, especially patent protection is a legal mechanism to create copyrights, thereby helping businesses create a competitive advantage.

Up to now, in our country, only a few large enterprises, such as FPT, Viettel, Viglacera and etc have international trademark registrations. There are many remaining businesses, most of them are small and medium-sized businesses that only focus on forming and calling for investment capital without thinking about registering for intellectual property protection rights, even afraid to register copyright and intellectual property.

"Patents per year average more than 1,000 applications - this is a relatively modest number. Last year, according to our statistics, more than 8,000 enterprises registered for patents and trademarks, there were more than 50,000 enterprises are less than 60,000. Compared to other countries, these figures are still very small "- Mr. Le Huy Anh shared.

Besides, economic experts said that in the context of Vietnam's economy integrating deeply with the participation of many free trade agreements to promote increased trade, import and export of goods and etc. If businesses do not pay attention to the issue of protecting intellectual property rights, businesses will lose many development opportunities by themselves. To improve their competitiveness, Vietnamese enterprises need to have a strategy to register their trademarks internationally to protect their brands, as well as improve their reputation in the market. Also, consider the cost, time, quantity, and country of registration.