It came as a rude shock, then, to the NgocLinh family when they recently learned that their pancakes were banned from entering Japan.
However, the reverses suffered by the NgocLinh family and the makers of Phu Quoc fish sauce are leading to a growing recognition - from private enterprise and government authorities alike - of the need to safeguard Vietnam's IPR.
A repeat of what happened to NgocLinh may be prevented, in the view of the authorities, but only if Vietnamese companies "invest actively to develop their own images", as Lan advises.
Quach NgocLinh (as her name would be written in Vietnam, surname first) was 9 and living with her parents and nine siblings in Saigon.
One by one, and by different routes, Linh and four of her siblings (but not her mother or the other four children) were brought to join him.
Linh's father, meanwhile, had gone through refugee organizations to contact his sister, who'd married an American GI and was living in the Pittsburgh suburb of South Park.
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