Orion wins Choco Pie trademark suit in Vietnam

South Korean confectionary company Orion Corp. won a trademark infringement suit it filed against a Vietnamese rival in 2015, which was accused of manufacturing and exporting a snack under the same brand as Orion’s iconic bestseller Choco Pie.

The Korean company said on Monday the Vietnam Intellectual Property Research Institute ruled in its favor, finding that the Vietnamese products infringed on Orion’s trademark rights.

Last year, the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam also granted Orion exclusive rights to its signature snack brand after dismissing a petition filed by the same Vietnamese company seeking to cancel Choco Pie’s trademark.

Vietnam’s intellectual property cooperation foundation recently visited Orion headquarters in Seoul as part of follow-up negotiations to the Korea-Vietnam trade pact to discuss ways to protect the intellectual property rights of Korean companies in Vietnam.

Choco Pie became a registered trademark in Vietnam in 1994 and was introduced to the Vietnamese people in 1995. Orion began local production of the products after setting up a factory in Ho Chi Minh in 2006 and another one in Hanoi in 2009. Choco Pie’s cumulative sales in the country hit the 1 trillion won ($945.3 million) milestone in 2015, with sales reaching an all-time annual high of 222.4 billion won in 2017. Choco Pie sells more than 500 million pies in Vietnam a year and remains the No. 1 snack in the country’s pie market with a 64 percent share.

By Lee Duk-joo and Kim Hyo-jin

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trademark infringement