Rice variety ST25 has been granted a plant variety protection certificate and has become the common name of the rice variety. Therefore, the sign "ST25" cannot register for exclusive trademark protection for products from rice.
Face with concerns about the risk of "losing" the ST25 rice brand because some US businesses have recently registered for protection here, the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (Ministry of Science and Technology) has provided information to people and businesses have a better understanding of this issue.
Accordingly, the aforementioned US companies have filed for registration of trademark protection of ST25 for rice products. However, ST25 is the name of the rice variety ST25 developed by engineer Ho Quang Cua and his colleagues, which has been granted a plant variety protection certificate in Vietnam since 2020. Thus, ST25 is the common name of a cultivar (rice), while ST25 rice is a processed product from the paddy of this variety.
Under the laws of the United States as well as Vietnam, the generic name of the product / service will not be protected as a trademark. This can be seen clearly in the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) intentional denial dated November 20, 2020 for the trademark "VIETNAM'S ST25 RICE, DAC SAN SOC TRANG" for rice products ST25 according to Application form No. 90151727 filed on September 1, 2020 by Transword Foods, Inc. If on a certain trademark that is granted a protection certificate for a rice or rice-related product, the sign ST25 appears combined with other signs to form a whole trademark, the sign ST25 will also be affected excluded from the scope of protection. In case the sign ST25 is registered for exclusive trademark protection for rice products, all concerned organizations and individuals can object to this registration on the basis of the sign "ST25" is the name of the plant variety and this name cannot be exclusive of any organization or individual.
Therefore, it can be understood that no one can register for exclusive protection of the sign "ST25" for rice products, even the private enterprise Ho Quang Tri, which owns the ST25 rice variety copyright. If so, how can consumers distinguish the commercial origin of the product when nowadays, many businesses are offering the ST25 rice product? According to the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, enterprises must bring ST25 rice products to the market under their own brand name, for example, now there are ST25 rice with the trademark "Bao Minh", and etc. |