More and more counterfeit goods have appeared in the tourism industry, which has made genuine travel firms feel tired.
Vietmark, a travel firm, has discovered that its document on team building tour organization consultancy appeared on the website of another travel firm, while many travel firms have complained that their tour design ideas have been “stolen” by others.
Nguyen Van My, Director of Lua Viet travel firm, which has been operating in the field since 1996, said that he never feels so tired like now, complaining that he has spend half of his time explaining about the misunderstanding on his travel firm’s brand and products.
The problem is that some newly set up travel firms, which registered their business in Nam Dinh, Long An and Go Vap in HCM City, have the names ending with “Lua Viet”, coinciding with his travel firm’s name. The names have led to misunderstanding and troubles.
When hearing “Lua Viet”, the clients, who have been familiar with the brand, may think that these are the branches of Lua Viet travel firm headquartered in HCM City, or the joint stock companies, where My contributes capital to. The clients, after using the services provided by the counterfeit firms, called My to complain about the quality of services, and they only found out the problem after My’s explanation.
My then sent a petition to the HCM City Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism, asking for help to settle the problem. However, he was told that the case is not within the jurisdiction of the department. After that, My made an appeal to the HCM City Planning and Investment Department, but the settle could not be settled.
The department told My that one would get business certificates, if his enterprise’s name is different from others, even though in one word. The business registration division of the department has affirmed that the names of other companies do not completely coincide with the name of “Cong ty da ngoai Lua Viet” (Lua Viet travel firm) registered by the firm in 1999.
The department also advised My to contact the science and technology department, or information and communication inspectors, market management taskforce, the police, the Competition Administration Department and local authorities at different levels, if he wants to appeal about the industrial property right or trademark infringement.
However, My has “given up the games” after hearing the names of so many agencies he needs to appeal to.
Nguyen Quoc Ky, General Director of Vietravel, also complained about the loss caused by the similar brands. For example, Vietravel is often mistaken for “Viet Travel,” while its slogan “nha to chuc du lich chuyen nghiep” (the professional organizer in tourism) has been “borrowed” by another firm which has turned into
Truong Hoang Phuong. Marketing Director of Vietmark said that a media and tourism company has copied the team building tour designs of Vietmark and posted on its website as its products.
Tran The Dung, Director of The He Tre travel firm said that any new tours can be easily copied by others, while it always take time and money to make appeal about that.
As travel firms cannot expect the assistance from state management agencies, they have to try to rescue themselves before the agencies find out reasonable solutions to help them. Vietravel has to push up communication campaigns to reaffirm its brand, while My has been trying to find new destinations to design new tours and remove the mistaken tours. He has also asked his officers to call to loyal travelers to make explanation about the similarity in the names. Meanwhile, Vietmark has to replace the text about team building with a new content.
Source: SGTT
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