Why Vietnamese brands are caught napping in overseas markets
By Anh Minh April 26, 2021 | 12:13 pm GMT+7
A customer holds a pack of ST25 rice in a shop in District 10, Ho Chi Minh City on April 23, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.
Vietnamese companies have repeatedly run into trouble in securing trademarks overseas because they are unaware, neglectful and reluctant to take the steps needed to protect their own brands.
ST25, the Vietnamese variety that won the World’s Best Rice contest in 2019, is in danger.
Ho Quang Cua, the farmer-scientist who led the research and development of this rice variety, which is grown in southern Vietnam, said that he hadn’t trademarked it in the U.S. earlier, because he did not foresee that it would be exported there and did not thoroughly understand international regulations.