Agricultural startups were robbed of products and brands when they were only interested in raising capital

DNHN - Unregistered patents and intellectual property rights have been cited in a seminar titled "Agricultural startups: required and sufficient criteria in the new normal." This implies foreigners may steal Vietnamese startups' technology and brand.

Young people who want to start a business are on the right track, but they don't fully understand how important it is to get a patent and register their ideas.

Why do I need to get money to start a business? That's what Ms Nguyen Cam Chi, Chairman of the Management Board of the Youth Development Fund, wants to know.

It's then that we have to show off our intangible assets, which are things like creativity. There is no way for us to know how to register copyright and intellectual property at the start, so we have to figure that out later. 

Patent and intellectual property registration are just as important to the development of a new product or market as they are to making money.

To protect their brands and brains, start-ups should fill in this hole.

They should also help bring Vietnamese agricultural products to the world by bringing them to the world.

Dam Sao Mai, Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, also said that many startups don't think about intellectual property and how to protect it when they startup.

Trademarks provide people with several rights. Businesses must identify who owns what to prevent intellectual property conflicts, disagreements, and litigation.

Ms Mai said that the National Office of Intellectual Property always puts Vietnamese businesses first when it comes to registering. It's not too hard to do, but how to write up the correct documents is the problem.

Mr Nguyen Lam Vien, CEO of Vitamin Joint Stock Company, said that if other agencies don't help with faster and earlier patent examination, it will be very bad. The CEO of Vinamit said that the Ministry of Science and Technology is currently allowing a lot of foreign patents to come into Vietnam.

If foreign businesses get all of the patents for food, processed foods, recipes, and other things that young start-ups are working on, we will be able to sell our products without having to pay for a patent. You need to know that we don't have good technology, but we do have a good product."

There is a possibility that you may be accused of infringing on someone's intellectual or industrial property. That's what CEO Vinamit means by patents and intellectual property. Mr Vien advised Vietnamese citizens to consider. "We are too smart and have too many local resources." It's clear they're on the right route, but they're not sure when it'll happen, says Vien.

Lâm Nghi