1. Benefits when owning a Copyright Registration Certificate in Vietnam
Despite not being legally obligatory, registering works with Copyright Office of Vietnam (COV) is strongly recommended because of the below benefits:
- An owner of a copyright registration certificate in Vietnam shall not bear the burden of proving his ownership of the copyright in a dispute, unless there is otherwise evidence.
- The owner to license or assign their copyright easily to other parties;
- Help minimize the risk of the work being appropriated by other parties to register and become the owner of the work.
2. Conditions for copyright protection in Vietnam
According to current regulations of Vietnam (Article 13.2 – Law on Intellectual Property), and the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Article 3), which Vietnam is a member to, a work will be protected in Vietnam if it fulfils one of following criteria:
- The work has been published for the first time in Vietnam OR published in Vietnam within thirty days from the date the work first published in another country;
- The authors who are nationals of one of the member countries of the Berne Convention, for their works, whether published or not;
- The authors who are not nationals of one of the member countries of the Berne Convention but who have their habitual residence in one of them shall, for the purposes of the Convention, be assimilated to nationals of that country;
- The authors who are not nationals of one of the member countries of the Berne Convention, for their works first published in one of those countries, or simultaneously in a country outside the Convention and in a country of the Convention.
3. What types of works are protected as copyright in Vietnam
Vietnam allows the following works to be protected as copyright:
- Literary and scientific works, textbooks, teaching materials, and other works expressed written letters or other characters;
- Lectures, addresses, and other speeches;
- Press works;
- Musical works;
- Dramatic works;
- Cinematographic works and works created by similar methods;
- Fine art works and applied art works;
- Photographic works;
- Architectural works;
- Sketches, plans, maps, and drawings relevant to topography or scientific works;
- Folklore and folk art works;
- Computer programs and data collections.
The works must be created personally by authors through their intellectual labour without copying others’ works.
Please be noted that the below objects not covered by copyright protection in Vietnam
- News of the day as mere items of press information.
- Legal documents, administrative documents and other documents in the judicial domain and official translations of these documents.
- Processes, systems, operation methods, concepts, principles and data.
4. Requirements & Timeline for copyright registration in Vietnam
- Information required
- Full name, address, nationality of owner(s) and author(s);
- Title, type and scanned of work;
- Date on which the work was created and finished,
- Date and place of the first publication of the work (if any).
- Documents required
- 02 written declarations for registration of copyright (form of Ageless);
- 02 Executed and Notarized Power of Attorney (form of Ageless);
- 2 Notarized true copy of Business Registration Certificates, if the owner is corporate;
- 2 Notarized true copy of Passport of the author;
- 2 Statement of honesty of the author(s) on creating the work (form of Ageless);
- 2 Task Assignment Document from the owner to the author (form of Ageless);
- 2 Written consents of co-authors/co-owners (if appliable);
- 2 copies of the work, fixed or represented in a certain form.
The above documents must be prepared in Vietnamese. In cases documents made in a foreign language must be translated into Vietnamese. All original documents are required at the time of filing.
- Timeline
In general, it takes 25-35 working days from the filing date to COV issue of the copyright certificate. During this period, the application will be examined as to form and eligibility for protection.
5. Term of Protection copyright in Vietnam
- Indefinite protection term is for the moral rights of the author, including: Giving titles to work; Attaching name or pseudonym to works; Protecting the integrity of work.
- Definite protection term is for the right to publish work and asset rights, including:
+ For cinematographic, photographic, applied art and anonymous works:
- 75 years from the date of first publication;
- 100 years from the date of fixation if such works (except anonymous works) have not been published within 25 years from its fixation.
+ For remaining types of works: throughout the author’s life and 50 years after of the author death.
