Local firms urged to boost trademark protection for ST25 rice in US

The ST25 rice trademark has not yet been lost, Vu Ba Phu, director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) told Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper, pointing out that the foreign firms’ registration dossiers are pending on the website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The ST25 trademark, created by Vietnamese farmer-scientist Ho Quang Cua, received the World’s Best Rice title during the World’s Best Rice competition held on November 12, 2019.

However, several US companies moved to register the trademarks "ST25" and "World’s Best Rice" from June, 2020. They also registered a patent to trademark phrases which refer to the famous Vietnamese rice, including "a specialty of Soc Trang" and "No.1 Vietnam’s ST25 rice".

Vietnamese businesses should take urgent action in an effort to protect the trademark before it is too late, Phu recommended, adding local farmer Cua must prove himself as both the owner and creator of the rice variety. 

Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An High-Tech Farming Joint Stock Company, underscored the importance of developing rice trademarks in line with the registration of trademark, intellectual property, and packaging label for the rice product.

Tran Thi Hong Minh, director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), noted that the case is a prime example of local firms lacking knowledge with regard to registering trademark and intellectual property, a factor which hinders the introduction of Vietnamese products to the world.

Minh went on to stress the necessity of having a mechanism specifically for disseminating laws in a bid to help residents and businesses gain greater insights into policies for effective implementation in the future.