Nguyen Minh Tien, Chief of Secretariat of the National Coordination Office of the National Target Program on New Rural Development, found that businesses manufacturing and commercializing One Commune One Product-labeled (OCOP) products have not paid attention to protecting trademarks, or registering with intellectual property (IP) authorities.

“This can cause disputes, lawsuits and loss of the IP rights if they ignore the issue,” Tien told a relevant meeting in late April in Hanoi.

An OCOP point in Thanh Tri district. Photo: kinhtedothi.vn

Sharing his view about the role of IP protection for OCOP-labeled products, Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Science and Technology, said: “The registration for protection and effective management of IP rights for specialty products will contribute to maintaining and developing brands for businesses and cooperatives in rural areas.”

The effective protection of trademark ownership and IP rights will contribute to promoting the creation and innovation, Tuan added. “Therefore, products recognized by OCOP and protected by IP law will be enhanced in quality, value and competitiveness on domestic and potential foreign markets. For OCOP products with export potential, brand protection becomes even more essential,” he told Hanoitimes.

IP protection is one of the three main criteria for the evaluation and grading of OCOP-labeled products set by the national strategy. According to the National Intellectual Property Development Program, by 2030, at least an estimated 60% of OCOP products are to be protected by IP law.

In order to raise awareness on IP protection among handicraft villages in the city, the Hanoi Department of Science and Technology has advised the municipal People's Committee to promulgate plans encouraging the IP registration for agricultural products and craft villages of the city in the coming years. 

The department also counseled and guided 31 organizations and individuals to complete procedures for industrial property protection (25 trademark applications, six patent applications, one utility solution application and eight industrial design ones).

Last year, the municipal department's IP Management Division organized 18 training courses on brand development for handicraft villages with 1,260 participants.

In 2020, among 27 approved IP projects according to Decision No. 4506, twenty-two were related to OCOP products. 

The chosen projects were Yen Nghia safe vegetable (Ha Dong district), Dan Phuong flowers (Dan Phuong district); Do Dong rice (Thanh Oai district); Huong Ngai potatoes (Thach That district), and Dong Cao red pomelo (Me Linh district).