| Customers at a fake Korean store in Istanbul / Yonhap |
| Fake Korean goods from China, with explanations in awkward Korean / Yonhap |
By Jung Min-ho
Mumuso, a retailer that has been thriving across Asia over the past few years, claims to be a Korean company.
But no one recognizes the brand in Korea, where it has no sales office. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company and most of its employees are Chinese and its products are made in China.
The sole grounds of Mumuso's identity claim is a certificate of trademark registration, which the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) issued in 2015.
“But it is not a Korean company. It is a company that just pretends to be Korean,” a KIPO official told The Korea Times. “Getting certification here does not mean the company is Korean. For example, Apple also has its own certification here, but it is not regarded as Korean.”
Mumuso, Ilahui and Mini Good are among the Chinese copycat businesses popping up across Asia. They pretend to be Korean to appeal to more people in the region, where Korea's pop culture enjoys huge popularity.
According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), over the past two years about 100 such fake shops have opened in Vietnam alone.
“Vietnamese media and many people here perceive them as Korean brands,” said Giang Nguyen, a lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City. “I never buy at Mumuso because I think they all sell made-in-China products of low quality.”
This is what concerns Korean government officials as well as companies.
“Many companies are worried that low-quality fake Korean brands will tarnish the reputation of Korea's products,” the KIPO official said.
“The issue is that it is difficult to penalize such firms in other countries, where the legality of intellectual property rights may be different.”
He said KIPO had asked the Vietnamese government to cooperate in solving the problem. “The government agency promised to do so and we are expecting its response,” the official said.
Change may be coming soon.
According to Vietnam News, an English daily based in Hanoi, Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade recently announced Mumuso violated trade laws.
The ministry reportedly said the company failed to provide documents to clarify its origin of goods and production technologies, saying it offered “inadequate and wrong information to customers.”
The paper said the ministry on May 25 ordered a check into whether Mumuso infringed on Korean companies' intellectual property rights and also failed to provide accurate information to consumers.