What is the difference between a brand name and trademark?

We often hear the term "brand" used interchangeably with the term "trademark". But there is a legal difference between the two words.

A trademark is a mark that legally represents something, usually a business, by their goods or services. A brand name, however, is the name that a business chooses for one of their products. A brand identifies a specific product or name of a company.

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A "Trademark" includes any device, brand, make, label, name, signature, word, letter, numerical, shape of goods, packaging, color or combination of colors, smell, sound, movement or any combination thereof which is capable of distinguishing goods and services of one business from those of others.

One might ask, “What make of car do you drive?” and hear the answer as “A Ford®.” Or, “What brand of detergent do you use?” “Oh, I use Tide®.” Both Ford and Tide are trademarks, Ford cars can be both a brand and make, but Tide is not a make. You can use just the word "Ford" as a brand. A brand can also become a trademark. Ford started making cars in 1903, and started using the now famous oval Ford logo in 1907. But it was not until 1909 that the brand name Ford was registered as a trademark and today the brand name Ford is now a worldwide trademark.

In reality, very few people, other than lawyers, who hear you use the word "brand" rather than "trademark" would stop and tell you that you used the wrong word.

Source: Quora

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What are The Advantages of Trademark Registration?

A Trademark is essentially a brand name. It may comprise of a word, name, combination of words or names or a symbol used to identify and also differentiate goods/ services produced/ provided by one seller from those offered by other sellers. It is also used to indicate source of the commodities.

Trademark in Vietnam

Trademarks allow you to protect your company’s name, and to specify which types (classes) of goods and services your company’s trademark should be applied to. For example, coffee mugs vs. outdoor apparel. It’s important to point out that trademarks are intangible assets, and can be bought, sold or licensed.

Other Advantages of Registering a Trademark:

-It grants the right to use the registered trademark symbol: ®;

-It grants the right to file a trademark infringement lawsuit in federal court and to obtain monetary damages;

-It acts as a bar to the registration of another confusingly similar mark;

-Ability to have the customs service block the importation of goods bearing an infringing mark; and

-It may serve as the basis for an international trademark application.

If you’re considering registering for trademarks then you should hire a competent Trademark Lawyers in Vietnam who will make sure everything is protected from the get-go. Feel free to visit ANTLawyers.vn for this. We’re a legal marketplace that makes it easy for entrepreneurs to hire and work with quality, vetted lawyers.

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Anti-Dumping Measures for Some received Cold-rolled (Cold-pressed) Steels Under Plate and Coil Form From China (AD08)

On May 03^rd, 2019, the Trade Remedies Authority – Ministry of Industry and Trade a dossier requesting investigation and imposition of anti-dumping measures for some cold-rolled (cold-pressed) steels under plate and coil form which are alloy or non-alloy steel products rolled flat into plate or coil. The requesters being representative of domestic manufacturing industry include: (1) Posco Vietnam Co., LTD; (2) China Steel Sumikin Vietnam Joint Stock Company; and (3) Vnsteel – Phu My Flat Steel Company Limited, a subsidiary of Vietnam Steel Corporation request to impose anti-dumping tax equivalent to 21.3% for products originating from China.

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On September 03^rd, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Decision No.2703/QD-BCT on anti-dumping investigation and imposition on some cold-rolled (cold-pressed) steels under plate and coil form originating from the People’s Republic of China.

Within 15 days after the issuance of Decision No.2703/QD-BCT, the Investigating Authority shall send the investigation questionnaire to the relevant parties. The relevant parties shall submit written response to all questions in the questionnaire within 30 days from the date of receiving the investigation questionnaires. The date of receiving the investigation questionnaires shall be set at seventh days after the investigation questionnaires are sent by Investigating Authority.

In case of necessary or reasonable request from relevant parties, the investigating authority may extend the time limit but not more than 30 days.

The relevant parties shall register participation in investigation within 30 days from the date of issuance of Decision No.2703/QD-BCT. The Ministry of Industry and Trade recommends that all organizations and individuals who are importing – exporting, distributing, trading and using products under investigation should register as a relevant party and provide necessary information to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to ensure their rights and interests in accordance with the law.

As international trade law firm with experience in previous investigations, ANT Lawyers always follows up the development of anti-dumping investigation and provide clients with recent update.

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What is the Copyright Registration Process Workflow?

Copyright is defined as a legal right of the owner of intellectual property. It is an exclusive right of the original creator to reproduce the work. Copyright provides the exclusive right to the creator of the original material to further develop for a given period of time.

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Copyright is an exclusive right granted by the law to the creators of literary, artistic, musical or dramatic works and to film producers as well. It also includes right related to reproduction, communication to the public, translation of work. It provides safeguards to the author for their creations, thereby protecting their creativity.

When a person creates an original product which requires a significant mental activity to create, then it needs to be protected from unauthorized duplication. Copyright can be done of only unique creations related to art, poetry, musical lyrics, novels, films, graphic design, architectural etc. It is considered to be original in case the author created it from their independent thinking. Copyright can be voluntarily registered by the original owner, preventing others from using or replicating it.

Copyright provides protection to the efforts of artists, writers, designers, musicians, and architects and it also promotes others to create.

Any type of work cannot be copyrighted. Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts and brand names, logo, domain names can also not be protected. Any work that requires copyright must be in intangible form.

Copyright, trademark, patent are generally used interchangeably, however, Copyright, Trademark and Patent are different forms of protection.

Trademark protects products which are used to differentiate the product of one with the product of another. It includes words, logos, symbols, and brand names.

Patents protect inventions of the inventor for a limited period of time, it includes industrial processes, machines & chemicals.

Copyright registration can be done in relation to published or unpublished work. In the case of registered unpublished work, a manuscript is required to be sent along with the application for affixing the stamp in proof of the work having been registered. If two copies of the manuscript have been sent then one copy of the manuscript duly stamped will be returned while the other copy will be retained by in the office for record purpose and will be kept confidential. Instead of a manuscript an applicant can also send the extracts from the unpublished work and can ask for the return after being stamped with the seal of the corporate office. After that applicant may apply for the changes in the Register of Copyright with the prescribed fees.

Every type of literary or artistic work can be copyrighted in relation to a website or computer program. It ensures protection for the creator and provides significant rights over their creation.

Registration Procedure

For the purpose of registration of the copyright an application can be made in the prescribed format as prescribed in the first schedule of the rules;

An application shall be made with the requisite fees prescribed;

The application must be signed by the applicant in whose favor the power of attorney has been executed;

The separate application is required to be filed for the registration of each work.

Filing of an Application

After filing a copyright application with the complete details, the author or owner has to wait for a mandatory period of 30 days for any objection that can be filed in the copyright office against the applicant.

In the case of any objection, it will take another one month to take a decision regarding whether the work can be registered with the registrar of copyrights after giving the opportunity of being heard.

Examination

If within the said period of 30 days no objection is filed then the application shall be examined by the examiner or in the case of any objections raised by the examiner for any further documentation required. After this response to the examination report has to be filed within 30 days.

Registration

After the objections are overcome to the satisfaction of the copyright office, A copyright registration certificate is issued.

Copyright Registration Process Workflow

The Term of Copyright Granted

The term of protection granted to the copyright owner depends on the type of work that needs to be protected. Copyright protection granted in relation to literary, musical or artistic work which extends to the period of a lifetime of the author and 60 years from the year in which the author dies. In case the work has not been performed during the lifetime of the author than the Copyright Registration protection shall be continued for a period of 60 years from the end of the year in which any activity is done in relation to work. Films or the computer programs are protected for a period of 60 years from the end of the year in which work is made available to the public with the consent of the owner whereas.

If you're looking for an affordable IP attorneys in Vietnam, check out ANTLawyers.vn. ANTLawyers.vn was established to meet these needs by providing fast, effective and economical solutions. Hope that clears things up a bit. Feel free to message me directly to chat further about any other IP questions that you face.

Source: Quora

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Da Nang organizes the 9th urban development forum in the city of Yokohama, Japan

On September 9^th, 2019, Danang organized the 9^th urban development forum of the city in Yokohama, Japan.

The forum was organized in 03 days from 09-11 September 2019. In this forum, the two cities reassessed the cooperation results over the past time, namely the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two cities (in April 2019). In the coming time, the cities will focus on developing public transport, building port government projects, environmental issues, high technology, information technology and city construction. clever.

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In the forum, the two cities summarized the achievements of economic cooperation between the two cities in recent years. Especially with the financial support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in recent years such as: waste separation project, water pump supply project, Lien Chieu port research project. At the same time, the representative from Da Nang highly appreciated the mode of cooperation between the public and private sectors of Yokohama City through the Center of establishment the knowledge- Y-PORT and the Yokohama Urban Solutions Alliance – YUSA; Danang hope that Yokohama city will continue to share experiences for Danang City to learn and apply to develop similar models in the city.

In addition, representative of Da Nang mentioned specific matters that need Yokohama to coordinate and support in the future such as: support to raise awareness of waste separation at source, technical observation of water environment and air environment, human resource training in the field of information technology, high technology, smart city, training and caring for the elderly …

At the forum, leaders of the two cities witnessed the departments and units of the two localities signing the cooperation minutes, marking, committing and confirming the sustainable cooperation relationship of the two cities, including: (1) Framework for implementing the Memorandum of Cooperation between the two cities for the period of 2019-2022 (2) Promotion of energy saving project towards people in Da Nang city by JICA funding (3) Danang Industrial Wastewater Management Project.

In the coming time, Danang wishes the two cities to work together to develop together, to attract Japanese investors to Danang to invest in here through setting up company under foreign direct investment scheme, thereby helping the city to learn a lot of experience in construction and development in the future.

ANT Lawyers is a Law firm in Vietnam with international standards, recognized by Legal500, IFLR1000. We are an exclusive Vietnam member of Prea Legal, the global law firm network coverig more than 150 juridictions. The firm provides a range of legal services as following to multinational and domestic clients.

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What is the most elegant patent application?

I associate the word "elegant" with solutions to problems that are well-defined. With that point of view, the word does not even apply to a patent application. That is, "elegance" is not even a goal when preparing a patent application.

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Basically, writing a patent application is like creating software, within a budget (explicitly stated or implicit) that is going to be released into the wild for maybe 20 years, with no opportunity to fix it after it has been released.

Actually, writing a patent application is a little more difficult than that. It's more like creating the software and also writing a description of it. No matter what the software functionally can do, it is limited by its description, so you want to make the description as broad as possible. On the other hand, the description can be attacked if it says the software does more than it actually is capable of doing, so you don't want to make the description too broad.

One of the first tasks is to try to anticipate all the problems that might arise over the next 20 years or so, which is already very challenging. Then, of course, you have to try to address those problems as best you can.

Therefore, it is much more important to make a patent application as strong and robust as possible, given the limited resources available, than it is to make it elegant.

That said, as with pretty much any job, it is possible to come up with clever or even out-of-the-box solutions to certain sub-problems within the overall job. However, those solutions, while satisfying to the patent attorney, are almost always invisible to others.

I have had litigators who were enforcing patents I drafted and prosecuted, compliment me on the quality of the patent application, but it is rare that anyone else would have sufficient expertise and also an opportunity to examine a patent application closely enough to notice how good, or bad, it is.

ANT Lawyers - A Law firm in Vietnam is supported by a team of experienced patent, trademark, design attorneys with qualification and skills handling full range of legal services relating to intellectual property rights in Vietnam.  We have specialized in the preparation and registration of patents, trademarks and designs for our clients.

Source: Quora

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Is it possible to trademark a signature?

Well, a trademark refers to any kind of unique mark that represents your trade. A trademark can be anything from a word mark, logo or unconventional marks. A signature is going to come under logo. To that end, yes, you can trademark your signature.

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If you need any evidence to know that this is fact, you can look into the signatures of John Hancock, Taylor swift, John Lennon, Shahrukh Khan or Sachin Tendulkar. These celebrities have gotten their signatures trademarked.

However, as you can guess, most of them are celebrities with the brand being, well, they themselves are a brand. To that end, make sure that whatever you do is a significant brand before opting for this.

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Deadline for submission of AD07 case response questionnaire

On August 5^th 2019, Minister of The Ministry of International Trade and Industry issued the decision no. 2334/QĐ- BCT on the investigation of the application of anti-dumping measures on some plastics and plastic products made from propylene polymers comes from the People’s Republic of China, the Kingdom of Thailand and Malaysia (AD07). The case was initiated under investigation based on a request filed by a local manufacturing industry representative on April 26^th, 2019.

Anti-dumping Law Firm in Vietnam 

Pursuant to Official Letter No. 704 / PVTM-P1 sent by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Trade to all parties involved in the AD07 case on August 19, 2019, asking foreign manufacturers and exporters to conduct questionnaires. The investigation has been posted publicly on the website of the investigating authority and the Ministry of Industry and Trade or contacting the investigation office of the Department of Trade Remedies to receive the questionnaire.

Related post: Vietnam Investigates and Applies Anti-Dumping Measures on Some Plastic Products from China, Thailand and Malaysia (AD07)

After completing the questionnaire, the manufacturers and exporters related to the case AD07 send the complete questionnaire including 03 confidential copies, 03 public copies (hard copy) and 01 USB containing the soft copy of the answer. The answer is considered to be submitted on time when the Investigation Agency receives all hard and soft copies before 4:30 pm on September 25, 2019 (Hanoi time). Investigating agencies request stakeholders to answer and carefully study the instructions in the questionnaire before answering and submit the questionnaire within the prescribed time limit. Beyond this period, all questionnaires submitted to the investigating authority are not considered valid.

In the event that the investigating authority does not receive the timely response or the information provided incorrectly, incompletely as required, the investigating authority will apply the provisions of Article 10 of Decree 10/2018/ ND- CP on related parties not cooperating in trade defense cases.

As international trade law firm, we at ANT Lawyers always monitor changes in law and provide clients with recent update.

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Danang organizes roundtable discussion investment cooperation with Canada

On August 28, 2019, in the Toronto city, Canada, Chairman of Danang People’s Committee chaired a roundtable talk about Canada-Danang investment cooperation.

At the conference, the Chairman of Danang City People’s Committee introduced the investment and business environment, as well as exchanging cooperation and investment opportunities to investors in Canada. The city also expressed its desire to attract investment in high technology, information technology, education and tourism.

Set-up company in Da Nang

                                         

Until June, 2019, Canada has 10 foreign direct investment projects in Danang with a total registered capital of nearly USD 1 million, mainly in the field of management consulting service, equipment leasing. In terms of trade exchange, in 2018, exports from Danang to Canada reached 27 million USD, with the main export items including garments, children’s toys, components, auto parts, crafts. Meanwhile, the import value reached US $ 1.6 million with the main import items such as machinery, equipment and transport vehicles. At the roundtable seminar, Canadian investors expressed their interest in projects in the field of renewable energy, education, assembly, and production of auto parts in Danang.

                                                      

For investors interested in the opportunity to cooperate in the production of automobile parts, Danang said the city has many mechanical businesses capable of cooperating to produce automobile parts with foreign partners. At the same time, the strategic location of Danang is also an advantage for investors in terms of product transportation and distribution system when opening the factory here.

In the field of education – training, city leaders encourage projects of building international schools and joint training programs according to international programs in Danang of Canadian investors.

 In addition, Danang also wishes to cooperate with the city of Brampton, Ontario province – a city possessing strengths in logistics, information technology in Canada. At the meeting, representatives of city agencies answered the investors’ questions related to investment support and preferential policies; especially in the field of high technology, renewable energy, financial support for small and medium enterprises, protection of intellectualproperty rights …

ANT Lawyers is a Law firm in Vietnam with international standards, recognized by Legal500, IFLR1000. We are an exclusive Vietnam member of Prea Legal, the global law firm network coverig more than 150 juridictions. The firm provides a range of legal services as following to multinational and domestic clients.

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Mikazuki Group Wants to Build A Night Market and A Japanese Pedestrian Street in Da Nang

On July 15^th 2019, representative of Mikazuki Group (Japan) had a meeting with Da Nang City People’s Committee on the investment plan of night market and pedestrian street, similar to Tokyo night street.

Accordingly, Mikazuki Group’s leaders continue to affirm and commit to complete the construction of the onsen hot mineral water park at the Mikazuki Spa & Hotel tourist project in April 2020 and complete the whole project in 2021.

Set-up company in Da Nang

Besides, General Director of Mikazuki Group (Japan) expressed his desire to invest 50 million USD to build night market and pedestrian street next to Mikazuki Spa & Hotel project (Hoa Hiep Nam ward, Lien Chieu district).

The group also proposed the city to soon complete the conversion of the purpose of using the area of 5,000m2 of the land into commercial land – services as well as implementing the project related parts.

Vice Chairman of Da Nang City People’s Committee welcomed Mikazuki Group to study and invest an additional of 50 million USD to build night market and walking street next to the Mikazuki Spa & Hotel tourist area. Regarding the proposals of the group, the City People’s Committee pledged to direct the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to actively accelerate the conversion of land use purpose for 5,000m2 to soon complete the project.

For the roads around the project, the City People’s Committee will work with the project operating units and Lien Chieu District People’s Committee to speed up the implementation, striving to complete soon; assigned Construction Department, Institute of Construction Planning, Department of Transport and People’s Committee of Lien Chieu District to study and renovate the landscape of roads around the tourist area.

Earlier, in March 2019, Mikazuki Group organized a groundbreaking ceremony for the Mikazuki Spa and Hotel Resort project in Japanese style at Xuan Thieu beach. The 5-star project Mikazuki Spa & Hotel Resort (Xuan Thieu Tourist Area) with a total investment capital of 100 million USD, total area of about 13 ha, located on Xuan Thieu beach (Hoa Hiep Nam ward, Lien Chieu district).

The project is designed by Raymond Vietnam – Japan Architecture Design Company Limited with a scale of 5-star standard hotels, 19-storey high, construction density of 25%, including 464 accommodation rooms, amusement parks, resort serving about 6,000 guests/day and restaurant area, conference, water park, food court, car park…

ANT Lawyers is a Law firm in Vietnam with international standards, recognized by Legal500, IFLR1000. We are an exclusive Vietnam member of Prea Legal, the global law firm network coverig more than 150 juridictions. The firm provides a range of legal services as following to multinational and domestic clients.

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