Thanh Niên Newspaper: “The Court: Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC and Binh Minh plastic are completely different”
According to the court, the logos printed on the plastic pipes of the two companies both have the sign BÌNH MINH, but the logos, brand names, sizes, fonts, and origins of the products are completely different, not causing confusion for consumers. Citing from Thanh Niên Newspaper
On the morning of April 25, the High People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld the first-instance judgment in the intellectual property dispute case regarding the trademark “plastic pipe Bình Minh” between the plaintiff Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC and the defendant Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC.
Plaintiff’s lawyer argues at the appellate court[
The appellate panel analyzed that Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC registered its business for the first time on January 2, 2004, while Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC registered its business for the first time on January 23, 2022. Both companies produce and trade in PVC products.
Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC is the owner of the BM, Binh Minh trademarks. Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC was granted a copyright registration certificate for the BVM logo, Viet Sunrise Plastic, in the form of an applied artistic work on January 28, 2022. A representative of Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC submitted an application to register the BVM trademark, Viet Sunrise Plastic, and received decision number 53459 from the Intellectual Property Office on July 12, 2023, regarding the acceptance of the valid application.
Viet Sunrise has the logo BVM, PLASTIC, VIETNAMESE PLASTIC PIPE, which has been accepted by the Intellectual Property Office as a valid trademark application according to the decision on July 12, 2023. Binh Minh has the logo BM, PLASCO, Binh Minh Plastic.
Regarding the trademark printed on the plastic pipes of Viet Sunrise, the logo BVM, PVC-U pipe standard, PRODUCTS OF VIET SUNRISE PLASTIC JSC, at 176/14B Nguyen Thi Thap, P.Binh Thuan, Q.7, Ho Chi Minh City. And the brand printed on the plastic pipes of Binh Minh with the logo BM, Binh Minh Plastic, produced at C1, 6, C1 80 Duong Vinh Lap 2, Vinh Lap 2 Industrial Park.
According to the court, comparing the logos and brand names printed on the plastic pipes of the plaintiff and the defendant, they are completely different, not overlapping.
“Because according to the logos printed on the plastic pipes of both parties, they both have the sign BÌNH MINH, but the logos, brand names, sizes, fonts, and origins of the products are completely different, not causing confusion for consumers,” the appellate judgment stated.
With the expert conclusions in the case file, according to the appellate court, there is not enough basis to serve as evidence to resolve the case.
According to the first-instance judgment, in 2023, Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC discovered that Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC was using the business name and PVC pipe products bearing the signs “BÌNH MINH VIET”, “VIET SUNRISE PLASTIC” causing confusion with the trademark of Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC, infringing on the rights to the trademark of the company that has been registered, so it submitted a request to the competent authorities to handle and filed a lawsuit in court, demanding the defendant to cease the infringing acts.
In the first-instance trial, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court did not accept the request of Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC because it held that the plaintiff was legally protected regarding the trademark “Binh Minh”, and the phrase “Viet Sunrise Plastic” was not protected, so the plaintiff’s request for the defendant to remove all signs of “Binh Minh” was unfounded.
Regarding the expert conclusion of the Intellectual Property Science Institute, Ministry of Science and Technology, affirming that the PVC pipe products produced by Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC are elements infringing on the industrial property rights to the trademark of Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC that is being protected; or the decision to impose an administrative penalty by Market Management Team No. 1 (Long An Province Market Management Department) against the store for selling Viet Sunrise Plastic goods infringing on the rights to the trademark of Viet Sunrise Plastic JSC, according to the first-instance court, only has reference value, not evidence to resolve the case.
