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: A request for application conversion must include:
ELITE: Paper applications can be submitted directly or by post to the following VNIPO:
If filing by post, a copy of the money transfer receipt must be attached as proof of payment.
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:
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 Law Firm: Procedures for registration of trademark protection at the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) according to regulations need to go through several steps, including filing application, formal examination, publishing in the Official Gazette, substantive examination, notifying issue a decision on grant of a protected title, pay the granting fee if granted and the NOIP issues a Certificate of Trademark Registration for a trademark registration application that meets the protection requirements. Accordingly, the total time to register a trademark in Vietnam is within 13 months.
However, this term may be extended because the application is denied in form or substance (not fundamentally different from the trademarks being protected) or due to overcrowding of applications. In our experience, to shorten the time for trademark registration at the NOIP, customers should conduct a thorough search and assess the protectability of the trademarks before applying for registration, and application dossiers need to be completed under the prescribed form.
ELITE Law Firm: Currently, the provisions on trademark protection of Vietnam IP law as well as the guiding documents do not have specific provisions on the scope of protection of black and white and color trademarks.
When registering for color trademark protection, the trademark will be protected by both the content and the color of the trademark. The owner can only use the trademark in the form of the registered color, if the color is not correct, it will violate the regulations on the use of the trademark. Trademarks registered for protection in the form of black and white are only protected for images and text, but not for colors. However, the practice of trademark protection in Vietnam allows a trademark registered in black and white to be used in different colors, as long as the text and image contents of the trademark are preserved and do not infringe the rights of a registered trademark.
ELITE LAW FIRM: Under current regulations, the trademark owner can modify a trademark application, however, such modification must not expand the scope of protection of the trademark. In case the trademark owner wants to add a new class of goods/services to your registered trademark application, he/she needs to proceed with the filing of another trademark application for the new class of goods/services with the same procedure as with the already filed trademark application.
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:
| a) Literary and scientific works, textbooks, teaching courses, and other works expressed in written languages or other characters; | b) Lectures, addresses, and other sermons; |
| c) Press works; | d) Musical works; |
| e) Dramatic works; | f) Cinematographic works and works created by a process analogous to cinematography; |
| g) Plastic – artworks and works of applied art; | h) Photographic works; |
| i) Architectural works; | j) Sketches, plans, maps, and drawings related to topography, architecture, or scientific works; |
| k) Folklore and folk artworks of folk culture; | l) Computer programs and data compilations. |
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.