HCMC – The competent agencies of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province have launched criminal proceedings against Saigon Vietnam Beer Group for violating industrial ownership rights, according to the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Colonel Nguyen Huy Cuong, deputy head of the Investigation Police Department of the province, signed a decision to prosecute the brewer for violating rights in Hoa Long Commune in Ba Ria City.
Saigon Vietnam Beer Group, headquartered in HCMC, had cooperated with BiVa, a beer production facility, to manufacture beer bearing Saigon Vietnam Beer labels, which could cause misunderstanding about the origin of Saigon Beer.
Saigon Beer products are trademarked and owned by the Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco), the local media reported.
As Saigon Vietnam Beer Group’s products look similar to Sabeco’s products, the former was found violating industrial property rights regulated in Clause 2 of Article 226 of the Penal Code.
On June 23, an inspection team of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau market surveillance agency initiated an unannounced inspection into the Biva beer producer facility owned by Vu Tuan Chau located in Bac 2 Hamlet.
After the inspection, the team found over 4,700 beer crates attached with the Saigon Vietnam Beer labels on beer cans, over 116,000 empty beer cans and 3,300 empty cartons.
The results of the preliminary investigation showed that BiVa Company had signed a contract for processing beer products with the Saigon Vietnam Beer Group.
However, the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam concluded that the volume of beer products mentioned above had the same design and label as that of Sabeco’s products, showing signs of violations in terms of industrial property rights.
Besides this, the competent agencies also discovered some 600 Saigon Vietnam Beer crates to be consumed in Binh Phuoc Province. The competent agencies are investigating the case.
