A French professor has accused a Vietnamese master’s degree holder and medical doctor of illegally translating and selling his book for nearly 1 million VND per copy without permission. The translated version has been described as poorly done and full of errors.

Professor Jean Francois Lasserre from the University of Bordeaux, France, recently raised concerns about Nguyen Quynh Trang, a medical doctor trained in oral and maxillofacial residency at Hanoi Medical University, for violating intellectual property rights by translating his book Fusion: Art and Nature in Ceramic Restorations into Vietnamese and commercializing it without approval.

The book represents over 40 years of Professor Lasserre’s dedication to ceramic veneer restorations.

“She commercialized the Vietnamese version of my book Fusion without any authorization. The translation is of extremely poor quality, riddled with errors, and shows a lack of respect for the publisher and the author,” Professor Lasserre wrote on his personal page, urging the public not to purchase the book.

Promotional content linked to the name “Dr. Nguyen Quynh Trang” appeared online, with messages such as: “This is the book by my teacher, Professor Jean Francois Lasserre, from the Department of Ceramic Prosthodontics, University of Bordeaux, France. I spent six months translating this book,” with the book priced at 999,000 VND (around USD 40).

When contacted by VietNamNet regarding the accusations, Nguyen Quynh Trang stated she was not personally responsible for translating the book Fusion: Art and Nature in Ceramic Restorations.

“I’ve seen that Professor Jean Francois Lasserre is upset and angry because the book was translated and sold without his consent. However, the translation and sales were carried out by my manager, who used the materials and hired someone to translate and run ads on my fan page without proper approval,” Trang explained, adding that her manager is also her younger brother.

Recognizing the copyright implications and the damage to the professor’s reputation, Trang said she proactively messaged Professor Lasserre to apologize. She also instructed her brother to remove all related content, recall distributed copies, and issue refunds to buyers.

She admitted the translation was released without any professional content review, leading to numerous errors and failure to meet the original author’s standards.

Thuy Nga