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Th 3, 13/12/2022 | 10:59 SA

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"Passport" to the fastidious market of Binh Thuan dragon fruit

On October 7, 2021, after nearly 3 years of filing for protection of three geographical indications of Vietnam (Luc Ngan lychee, Binh Thuan dragon fruit, Buon Ma Thuot coffee) in Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Japan officially granted the Geographical Indication Protection Certificate "Binh Thuan dragon fruit" with registration number 110. This is the second agricultural product of Vietnam after Luc Ngan litchi to be granted a Geographical Indication Protection Certificate in Japan.

The geographical indication protection in a difficult market like Japan has opened up many new opportunities for exporting and consuming Vietnamese dragon fruit in many other markets. This also shows the role of intellectual property, which is considered a support tool for Vietnamese products to have more competitive and export advantages.

Information about the Japanese directive 110 issued to Binh Thuan dragon fruit products, posted on the Portal of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries at: https://www.maff.go .jp/j/shokusan/gi_act/register/110.html

 

The role of the National Office of Intellectual Property in promoting and supporting the registration of geographical indication protection of Binh Thuan dragon fruit

Binh Thuan dragon fruit was registered by the National Office of Intellectual Property on November 15, 2006, according to Decision No. 786/QD-SHTT. On July 8, 2011, Binh Thuan Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 14/2011/QD-UBND enclosed with Regulations on the management and use of geographical indication "Binh Thuan" for dragon fruit products.

Currently, the Binh Thuan dragon fruit has been protected by the European Union (EU) as a geographical indication. At the same time, the trademark "Binh Thuan DRAGON FRUIT, picture" has been registered and protected in several countries and territories such as the US, UK, Germany, Korea, France, Japan, Thailand...

The story of registering for the protection of geographical indications of Binh Thuan dragon fruit in Japan is long and interesting, helping the National Office of Intellectual Property to gain a lot of valuable experience in supporting bringing Vietnamese local specialties to the world, helping regional specialties associated with Vietnamese landmarks be protected by a relatively strong protection mechanism - protection of geographical indications.

Like Luc Ngan lychee, the National Office of Intellectual Property has implemented many solutions to contribute to the success of the geographical indication registration of Binh Thuan dragon fruit in Japan. Famous for being a difficult market, with very strict legal regulations on the protection of geographical indications, the registration of geographical indications of Binh Thuan dragon fruit in Japan will certainly be extremely complicated. Therefore, the National Office of Intellectual Property has provided support in two ways: completing the application for registration of geographical indication protection to fully meet the provisions of Japanese law and strengthening international cooperation to accelerate this process.

In the Joint Statement on Deepening the Vietnam-Japan Extensive Strategic Partnership between the Prime Ministers of the two countries during Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's official visit to Japan in June 2017. The joint statement reads, “…willing to make efforts to facilitate the procedures for allowing the export of Japanese oranges and tangerines to Vietnam and Vietnamese litchi and longans to Japan; promote cooperation in the field of geographical indication protection”. In addition, an extremely important legal basis, which can be considered as paving the way for the submission of registration dossiers for the protection of geographical indications for Binh Thuan dragon fruit into Japan, is a Memorandum of Understanding on geographical indication cooperation between the National Office of Intellectual Property (Ministry of Science and Technology) and the Food Industry Department (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan). Accordingly, the two sides committed to promoting the protection of geographical indications of the two countries, and based on the Memorandum of Understanding, the two sides exchanged and proposed to select 3 products for each party to file for registration of protection. geographical indication of households in the other country. Binh Thuan dragon fruit is among the 3 selected products of Vietnam, based on the criteria of reputation, consumer market, the interest of local authorities, and products with import and export trade activities.

In addition to creating a legal basis, through the Intellectual Property Development Program (Program 68), IPVN has supported the development and completion of registration dossiers for the protection of geographical indications. for Binh Thuan dragon fruit into Japan. The process took almost three years and was indeed a difficult one. In addition to the difference in the legal protection of geographical indications between the two countries, Binh Thuan dragon fruit dossiers face many difficulties in terms of technical parameters of the application dossier and difficulties in organizational capacity to manage geographical indications.

The process of geographical indication protection for Binh Thuan dragon fruit in Japan

The initial registration is expected to protect geographical indications for three products: Luc Ngan lychee, Binh Thuan dragon fruit, and Buon Ma Thuot coffee, part of the cooperation program between the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. These two ministries are assigned to the National Office of Intellectual Property (Ministry of Science and Technology) and the other side is the Food Industry Administration of Japan coordinates with each other, each organization selects three products to register for cross-protection each other.

In that process, the registration of products, especially agricultural products of Vietnam protected in Japan has some difficulties as their criteria, high standards and detailed technical regulations are for us. The most difficult thing in the process of completing the application for registration is the requirement to prove the product's production history (proving that the properties of the product produced from a manufacturing method have been stable for at least 25 years).

To speed up the progress and meet the set requirements, the National Office of Intellectual Property, Binh Thuan Department of Science and Technology has worked with central agencies and related units to focus on perfecting standards. magazine, add supporting documentation and search for documents that demonstrate the product's manufacturing history. Accordingly, the book "Dragon fruit tree" of Ho Chi Minh City Agricultural Publishing House in 1997 by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Ke was determined to be used as a supplementary document. In addition, after reaching an agreement with the Japanese side on the selection of a unit for analyzing product characteristics, the Binh Thuan Department of Science and Technology signed a contract with the Sub-Institute of Agricultural Mechatronics and Post-Harvest Technology in Ho Chi Minh City to update data on product characteristics and add information about reputation (through a survey of commercial agents such as traders, wholesalers, retailers, consumers) and analyze more specifically the correlation between product characteristics and natural geographical conditions (the correlation between characteristics and natural geographical conditions as well as production methods).

Geographical Indication protection is an important factor to access this difficult market, but it is only the first step...

Products bearing geographical indications protected in Japan will be almost completely trusted by consumers there and have a much higher selling price than products not protected in Japan. Therefore, this is an important milestone in the process of bringing dragon fruits to Japan as well as paving the way for the promotion of geographical indication protection for other Vietnamese agricultural products in this difficult market.

Like Luc Ngan lychee, the grant of geographical indications for Binh Thuan dragon fruit has great significance for the export of dragon fruit to Japan and other countries in general. In addition to protecting trademarks for agricultural products and avoiding "stolen" when going to foreign markets, products bearing geographical indications in Japan often have higher selling prices than usual and are favored by people here. because “they understand that these products have been guaranteed by MAFF, so they will trust and be more willing to buy those products”.

It should be emphasized that the successful registration of the Binh Thuan dragon fruit for the protection of geographical indications in Japan is only the first step to creating a competitive advantage for the Binh Thuan dragon fruit to come to the Japanese market. It has been and will require a lot of effort from many sides, many levels, ministries, and branches, for Binh Thuan dragon fruit to continue to maintain this fastidious market, and at the same time to further expand its position.

Besides, the management activities of geographical indications of Binh Thuan dragon fruit after protection will continue to be a big challenge for all levels and sectors, especially in Binh Thuan province. The biggest difficulty to mention is quickly consolidating the capacity of the organization managing the geographical indications, the Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit Association. In addition, farmers' awareness, to strictly follow the process of growing and producing dragon fruits, ensuring product characteristics and quality standards for exporting dragon fruits to Japan as registered, also should be enhanced and continuously monitored.

Finally, the close coordination of the State management agencies and the Association, ensuring complete and transparent information, and effective and timely support for dragon fruit growers will contribute to ensuring synchronous participation, ensuring the quality of dragon fruit, and promoting dragon fruit trade in the domestic market and export.

Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam