Enterprises applying digital transformation in anti-counterfeiting

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According to the Organizing Committee, facing the development of technology, businesses are aiming to apply digital transformation to bring optimal efficiency to the management of production and business activities.

However, the management and safe exploitation of intellectual property assets in business, as well as control of counterfeit goods, and goods infringing upon intellectual property rights while applying digital transformation is a very important issue. This helps businesses both apply digital transformation and prevent counterfeiting, and protect their intellectual property rights on digital platforms.

Le Duy Anh, Head of Complaints and Enforcement Division - National Office of Intellectual Property (IP), said that doing business on e-commerce platforms has become an accessible, cross-border shopping channel chosen by many consumers, especially since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is an advanced business type, an irreversible development trend, and an extremely convenient commercial channel for rights holders to approach and interact with consumers.

However, this business form also has many potential risks of counterfeit goods and goods that infringe IP rights. In recent years, e-commerce in Vietnam has had a rapid growth rate of about 30-35% per year, estimated to reach US$13.7 billion in 2021 and belongs to the group of three countries with the highest growth rate of online retail market share in Southeast Asia.

In 2021, the market management force coordinated with the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy to inspect more than 3,000 cases of taking advantage of e-commerce to trade in smuggled goods, goods of unknown origin, and goods infringing IP rights.

According to experts, the global digital economy is growing faster than ever. Therefore, businesses need to further accelerate the digital transformation process. Because this is an inevitable and mandatory step today.

Especially in anti-counterfeiting, digital transformation is an important step for businesses to upgrade anti-counterfeiting technology, protect brands, and eliminate sophisticated counterfeits and poor-quality goods. Simultaneously, digital transformation is a useful tool for businesses to optimize production activities and improve the efficiency of the entire supply chain.

Therefore, experts believed that digital transformation of anti-counterfeiting activities at a more advanced level would protect businesses as well as meet the current trend of global digital economic transformation.

Especially for businesses dealing in agricultural products, food, pharmaceuticals, and functional foods, digitizing the entire supply chain from the production process, distribution, processing stages, and raw materials by traceability is extremely important.

Solutions to enhance the efficiency of IP rights enforcement in the digital environment are to improve the coordination efficiency between enforcement agencies such as police, Border Guard, Customs, information and communication agencies, and specialized state management agencies (for each group of products) in controlling counterfeit goods and goods infringing IP rights at domestic production facilities and border gates.

Enhance the efficiency of coordination between rights holders and enforcement agencies, e-commerce floor owners in providing real goods, identifying counterfeit goods and goods infringing IP rights.

Complete the mechanism to bind the responsibility of e-commerce floor owners for goods infringing IP rights (signing an agreement between an IP right holder and an intermediary service provider).

To protect intellectual property, experts recommend that businesses should pay attention to a number of contents, such as building and improving the capacity of the IP department in the enterprise; establishing official, stable, and convenient distribution channels (especially e-commerce channels) for easy access by consumers; regularly searching the industrial property database to promptly prevent acts of establishing rights that are likely to conflict with the established IP rights of enterprises by filing an objection to the grant of a protection title after the application is published.

In addition, set up market monitoring channels, working closely with enforcement agencies, enforcement support agencies, and e-commerce platforms to effectively deal with acts of counterfeiting, unfair competition, and deliberately misleading consumers.