Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A rare civil copyight litigation case in Vietnam

Tri Viet-First News Company a Vietnamese publisher who owns and licenses a number of titles for publication in Vietnam, has sued the Australian International Language School and Viet Nam Australia Society English Centre in the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples' Court (left) for illegal copyright infringement over 11 English-language titles and CDs. The accusation is that the two foreign language centres copied thousands of course books, materials and CDs. The copies even bore the First News logo, its address and the names of the publishers on their copies. Warning notices last year had apparently been ignored so the company sued for damages VND380 million (US$18,100).

IP civil litigation is still rare in Vietnam. How the court deals with evidence, the damages calculation and the injunction will be of great interest to IP holders and IP attorneys.

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