The coffee brand Buon Ma Thuot, registered by a Chinese company headquartered in Guangzhou City for sole patent rights in China for 10 years beginning in 2010, has had their rights revoked in the territory of China, a local law firm in charge of the case reported.

A department specializing in reviewing patent lawsuits under the Ministry of Industry and Trade of China has ruled the cancellation of sole patent rights for coffee brand Buon Ma Thuot on the whole territory of China, said Nguyen Van Thu of Pham & Partners law firm in Hanoi.

The law firm was previously hired by the Dak Lak People's Committee to act as its representative to proceed with the lawsuit to take back the brand to Vietnam from China.

The geographical indication of Buon Me Thuot Coffee was registered for sole patent rights by Guangzhou Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Co Ltd in Guangdong Province in 2010.

The department said that Buon Ma Thuot City in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, Vietnam, is considered a regional major coffee farming area, so it is not appropriate for a Chinese firm to register for sole patent rights in China.

Spanning more than 100,000 hectares in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, Buon Ma Thuot is widely known as Vietnam’s largest coffee growing area with an annual production of 300,000 tons and exports to 60 countries.

The registration of the Chinese firm for coffee and other products in China can confuse consumers about the origin of products, thus adversely affecting the local consumers, said the department.

According to the department, the company must file a complaint to the court in Beijing, China by the end of this month to appeal the case. If the company fails to do so, the revocation will go into effect and Vietnam can reclaim the Buon Ma Thuot coffee brand.

Previously, the Buon Ma Thuot Guangzhou Co announced that it was permitted to own sole-patent rights in China for ‘Buon Ma Thuot and Han script’ lasting from November 2010 until November 2020 and ‘Buon Ma Thuot Coffee-1986′ lasting from June 2011 to June 2021.

The incident was discovered by the Hanoi-based Bross & Partners law firm, which then immediately sent a document notification to Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association.

Le Quang Vinh, director of the intellectual property division of law firm Bross & Partners, told newswire Vnexpress that it was dangerous for a foreign company to have intellectual property over a Vietnamese brand, since this could weaken the reputation of Vietnamese coffee as international consumers would not know which was real Vietnamese Buon Ma Thuot coffee and which was from China.

Vinh said his company had consulted the Dak Lak Department of Science and Technology regarding a lawsuit to have Chinese authorities cancel the patent of Guangzhou Co. Vinh said Vietnam was likely to win the case.

The incident forced the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association and Pham & Partners, authorized by the Dak Lak Province People’s Committee, to appeal against the Chinese company’s patent in March 2013.