Vietnam motorbike company in trouble over Vespa lookalike

A Vietnamese motorbike company is courting trademark conflicts by selling scooters that look like Vespas and use the Honda brand name, the companies said Monday.

The Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry and Motorbike Corporation (Vinashinmotor) launched its Honda Diamond Blue motorbike in early September. The motorbike looks almost exactly like the Vespa LX, which is assembled in Vietnam by the Italian company Piaggio & C SpA.

At a price of some 50 million dong (2,600 dollars), Vinashinmotor's version costs roughly half as much as a Vespa LX.

'If you didn't look at the name plate, you'd be absolutely sure it was a Piaggio Vespa LX,' said Nguyen Thanh Trung, a mechanic at Honda's warranty centre in Hanoi.

Vinashinmotor says the 'Honda' in the name refers to the motor, which it says is manufactured by Sundiro Honda Motorcycles in Shanghai.

But in a press release Monday, Honda said the motor was not manufactured by Sundiro Honda or any other Honda branch. The company said it had 'no relation' to the motorbike being sold under the name 'Honda Diamond Blue.'

Piaggio issued a press release Saturday noting that a number of Vietnamese companies had 'imitated' its designs, but could not match its quality.

Vinashinmotor General Director Vu Manh Ha said the company had complied strictly with intellectual property regulations.

Ha said Piaggio could not sue Vinashinmotor, because it had not copyrighted the Vespa LX design in Vietnam.

Honda did not say whether it would pursue a claim of intellectual property violations against Vinashinmotor. Piaggio's representative in Vietnam declined to comment.

Vietnam is a signatory of all the treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization, a UN body which aims to promote the international protection of intellectual property.

After press reports in early September noted the Vinashinmotor motorbike's resemblance to the Vespa LX, Vietnam's Institute for Intellectual Property investigated the case.

In a statement issued last week, the institute said there was no reason to believe the motorbike violated Piaggio's copyright.

Vinashinmotor is a subsidiary of the troubled Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Company (Vinashin), a state-owned shipbuilding conglomerate.

Vinashin is being reorganized by a government committee after an audit in June revealed huge debts and corporate misconduct. Six of the company's officers, including two former chief executives, have been arrested.