Frequently Asked Questions

The following acts shall be regarded as infringements of industrial designs:

1. Using protected industrial designs or industrial designs insignificantly different from protected industrial designs, within valid terms of protection titles without permission of owners;
2. Using industrial designs without paying compensation according to the provisions on provisional rights.

According to Vietnam IP Law, the use of a patent means the performance of the following acts:

• Manufacturing the protected product;
• Applying the protected process;
• Exploiting utilities of the protected product or the product manufactured under the protected process;
• Circulating, advertising, offering, and stocking for circulation the protected product or the product manufactured under the protected process;
• Importing the protected product or the product manufactured under the protected process.

ELITE: Before the VNIPO issues a decision to reject an application, refuse to grant a protection title, or grant a protection title, an applicant may convert a patent application into a utility solution patent application, or vice versa.

ELITE: The VNIPO shall examine the request for validity renewal within 01 months from the date of receipt of the request.

If the request is considered valid, the VNIPO shall issue a decision on renewal of the protection title, register it, and publish it in the Industrial Property Official Gazette. If the application is considered invalid, the VNIPO shall notify the applicant of its intended refusal. If within a set time limit the requester fails to correct errors or unsatisfactorily corrects errors, makes no opposition or an unreasonable opposition, the VNIPO shall issue a decision on its rejection of the request for protection title renewal. Return the protection title to the owner.

ELITE: The required documents for an industrial design renewal application:

• Design patent validity renewal application (according to form No. 07 Appendix II Decree 65/2023/ND-CP);
• Original protection title (if the extension is requested to be recorded in the protection title);
• Power of attorney (if filed through an IP Agent);
• Receipt of application fee payment;
• Other documents (if necessary).

ELITE: Industrial design patents shall have a validity starting from the grant date and expiring at the end of 5 years after the filing date and may be renewed for two consecutive terms, each of 5 years. Requests for renewal of one or several industrial design variations stated in the industrial design patent must include a basic variation.

To have the validity of his/ her industrial design protection title renewed, a protection title holder shall file a request for renewal of protection titles’ validity and pay a validity renewal fee within six months before the expiration of the validity term. The payment of the validity renewal fee may be delayed for no more than six months after the expiration of the current validity term but the protection title holder shall pay the delayed renewal fee for each month of delayed payment.

ELITE:

In cases where many different applicants submit identical or indistinguishable trademark applications, the application with a priority date or first filing date will be accepted for protection.

In case there are multiple applications from different application owners filed for the same subject with the same priority date, only one application will be accepted for protection according to the agreement between these application owners. If the application owners cannot agree, the subject will be refused a protection certificate.

In case the first application has been filed in Vietnam or in countries that are members of the Paris Convention on Industrial Property or the Madrid System for trademark protection, the applicant has the right to claim priority rights for the subject matter that has been filed in the first application within the given period. This means that during the period from the date of filing the first application to the date of applying in Vietnam if another entity applies to the same subject in the first application, your application is still considered to have the same filing application date the same as the first filing date and has priority for protection.

ELITE: Trademark registration costs, including:

1. Official fees paid to the VNIPO;
2. Attorney fees.

In this section, we will inform you of the fee to be paid to the registration competent authority according to item (i) above. For the service fee service in service (ii), we will advise you in detail when you use our service.

1. Application filing fee: 150,000 VND;
2. Substantive examination fee: 550,000 VND/01 subject;
3. Application publication fee: 120,000 VND;
4. Formality examination search fee: 180,000 VND/01 subject;
5. Examination of request for priority rights fee (if any): 600,000 VND/01 priority application.

ELITE: A certificate of trademark is valid from the date of grant until the end of 10 years from the date of application and can be renewed many times in a row, each time for ten years. Please note that for the certificate of marks to be valid, within 6 months before the expiration date, the owner must submit a request for renewal to the VNIPO.

An application for an extension of the Trademark Registration Certificate can be submitted later than the deadline specified above but must not exceed 06 months from the date the protection certificate expires and the trademark owner must pay a renewal fee. deadline plus a 10% renewal fee for each month late.

ELITE: Types of works that are eligible for copyright protection under the Law on Intellectual Property in Vietnam include:

1. Literary, artistic, and scientific works eligible for copyright protection include:

2. Derivative works shall be protected only if it is not prejudicial to the copyright used to create these derivative works.

3. Protected works as mentioned above must be created personally by authors through their intellectual labor without copying others’ works.

ELITE: Under Art. 202 of the IP law of Vietnam, the remedies provided for IP/copyright infringement in Vietnam include:

1)Compelling the termination of infringing acts;

2)Compelling the public apology and rectification;

3)Compelling the performance of civil obligations;

4) Compelling the payment of damages;

5) Compelling destruction, distribution, or use for non-commercial purposes of goods, raw materials, materials, and means used for the production or trading of intellectual property right-infringing goods, provided that such destruction, distribution, or use does not affect the exploitation of rights by intellectual property right holders.

ELITE: Copyright and related rights consulting and service organizations shall perform the following activities at the request of authors, copyright holders, and related rights holders:

a) Consulting on issues related to the provisions of the law on copyright, and rights related to copyright;

b) Representing authors, copyright holders, and related rights holders to carry out the procedures for submitting applications for registration of copyrights and related rights under authorization;

c) Participating in other legal relations on copyright and related rights, protecting the rights and legitimate interests of authors, copyright holders, and related rights holders under their authorization.

Currently, there are no provisions on criminal remedies to handle infringements of industrial designs.

According to regulation, Courts shall apply the following civil measures to handle organizations and individuals that commit acts of industrial design infringement:

1. Compelling the termination of infringing acts;
2. Compelling the public apology and rectification;
3. Compelling the performance of civil obligations;
4. Compelling the payment of damages;
5. Compelling destruction, distribution, or use for non-commercial purposes of goods, raw materials, materials, and means used largely for the production or trading of industrial design-infringing goods, provided that such destruction, distribution, or use does not affect the exploitation of rights by industrial design right holders.

Civil remedies are applied to handle acts of infringement at the request of industrial design owners, organizations, or individuals who suffer from the damage caused by those acts, even when those acts have been or are being handled by administrative or criminal remedies. The procedures for a request for the application of civil remedies and the competence, order, and procedures for the application of civil remedies shall comply with the provisions of law on civil procedures.

The highest fine for individuals who infringe on the right to industrial designs is VND 250,000,000. The maximum fine for organizations that infringe on the right to an industrial design is VND 500,000,000, as follows: