HA NOI — Viet Nam will step up fines for intellectual property violations up to VND500 million (US$29,500) and begin filing criminal charges, according to Ordinance 04/2008/UBTVQH12 which takes effect on August 1.

Meanwhile, competent agencies have recently issued a circular on punishments for intellectual property violations, including articles 28 and 35 of the Law on Intellectual Property, which define “serious consequences” as large-scale violations that involve at least VND50 million.

These violators may be tried at court under Article 131 of the Penal Code, not only fined. “We are committed to protecting intellectual property.

We will try our best to ensure that companies in Viet Nam respect the law by conducting more copyright inspections,” said Vu Xuan Thanh, chief inspector of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the agency in charge of intellectual property.

Last month, inspectors from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security made spot inspections of some companies based in Ha Noi and HCM City.

They discovered two companies in HCM City, Nguyen Hoang Computer Company and Nguyen Kim Electronics Supermarket, using illegal software products.

According to recent research by the International Data Group (IDG), the software piracy rate in Viet Nam has fallen to 85 per cent and the country has been removed from the list of countries with the highest copyright infringement ratios in the world. — VNS