News

Ratification of the new Intellectual Property Law in Vietnam (with focus on patent and trademark in Vietnam) to comply with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has come into effect since January 14, 2019 set a number of requirements for changing Intellectual Property (IP) practices in Vietnam (for detailed information, please see our previous post here). In order to comply with such requirements, the draft to amend and supplement the Intellectual Property Law has been submitted to and ratified by National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on June 14, 2019 with the following points that worth noting:

NOIP and KIPO join forces for a new Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program

With aim of dealing with heavy local backlog of Patent examination and increasing demand of Korean applicants, the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) of Vietnam in conjunction with the Korean Intellectual Property Office officially launched a new PPH Pilot Program.

Under this Pilot Program,...

Need-to-know issues about Trademark protection and Patent protection in Vietnam under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)

CPTPP has officially come into effect in Vietnam since January 14, 2019. In which, there are many strict regulations that require Vietnam to amend the legal system on IP, especially, the regulation on trademark protection and patent protection in Vietnam to comply with the commitments in CPTPP.

New points for Patent registration in Vietnam – Application of International patent Classification (IPC – Version 2019.01)

According to the Notice No. 13235/TB-SHTT dated November 23, 2018 of the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) of Vietnam, as of January 01, 2019, the new version of IPC (2019.01) under Strasbourg Agreement shall be officially applied for the classification of technical solutions which claim protection in the application for patent registration in Vietnam. Besides the versions in two authentic languages as English and French provided by WIPO, the Vietnamese version also translated from English to assist individuals or organizations to register patent in Vietnam.

New points for trademark registration in Vietnam – Application of the International Classification of Trademarks (Nice – Version 11-2019)

According to the Notice No. 13234/TB-SHTT date November 23, 2018, as from January 01, 2019, The Vietnamese version of the Nice Classification 11th Edition (11-2019), translated by the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) from the English version published by WIPO, will be applied to the classification of goods and services for trademark registrations in Vietnam.

REMEDIES FOR SANCTIONING INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN VIETNAM IN RECENT YEARS

Over the years, the legal provisions on enforcement and protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Vietnam, including enforcement by criminal measures, have been strengthened and improved. Especially, the Criminal Code 2015 (amended in 2017) has for the first time regulated the criminal liability of legal entity for acts of infringement of IPRs in Vietnam.

Trademark in Vietnam, long bad faith story

There has been an increasing global issue of the so-called “bad faith trademark filings” in which a trademark is filed for unfair purposes in order to take advantage from the reputation of a well-known trademark whether registered or not registered yet in the country or region concerned. Nowadays, there are more and more free-riders with sophisticated ways of registering trademark in Vietnam in order to mislead the Trademark Office’s examination, notably, the recent bad faith filing over the registered trademark of Doosan Corporation.

NON-USE TRADEMARK IN VIETNAM & RISK OF CANCELLATION

Nowadays, among tens of thousands trademark in Vietnam filed and registered every year, there is a large number of trademarks that are not actually in commercial use or just used for first few years only. Meanwhile, many other individuals or organizations may desire to use those trademarks for their business activities to free-ride on the existing reputation by filing an identical application and requesting for cancellation of the cited trademark. As a consequent, those trademarks can be subjects for cancellation proceedings based on the basis of non-use trademark in Vietnam.