Business

France-funded IP courses open for local officials

Two training courses on intellectual property (IP) rights and counterfeit prevention opened in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on June 22 for 100 trade officials.

Two training courses on intellectual property (IP) rights and counterfeit prevention opened in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on June 22 for 100 trade officials.

The one-week training courses are part of a 300,000 EUR trade capacity building project funded by the French Development Agency and the French Ministry of Finance’s Treasury and Economic Policy General Directorate.

There will be three study tours in France for the trainees following the courses.

According to Christian Levon, Deputy Director of the French Economic Agency in Vietnam , the project aims to raise local trade officials’ knowledge on IP rights and strengthen their capacity on counterfeit verification and investigation.

“It will also help consolidate the application of IP right regulations in Vietnam ,” he said, adding that Vietnam ’s IP law is compatible with international IP laws.

He also expressed his pleasure to see that the Vietnamese National Assembly is on the way to improve the Law on Intellectual Property, including regulations regarding extending copyrights protection term.

However, Vietnam should take stronger measures to cut down on suppress IP right violations, he suggested, citing the Vietnam IP office’s reports of 3,000 IP violation cases in 2008.

Besides the two training courses, France will also help Vietnam train trade counsellors and boost the export of Da Lat’s vegetables products and Dak Lak’s coffee under its 25 million EUR programme on fighting counterfeit worldwide./.

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