NOTIFICATION: Updated IP Applications Handling in Vietnam IP Office

(Unofficial English translation by ELITE Law Firm)

Law on amended and supplemented some articles of Intellectual Property Law approved by the National Assembly on June 16, 2022, takes effect from January 1, 2023. Based on the review results and the spirit of Official Letter No. 475/VPCP-KGVX dated January 30, 2023 of the Office of the Government on the draft Decree detailing some articles and measures to enforce the Intellectual property Law on industrial property, protection of industrial property rights and rights to plant varieties and state management of intellectual property, requesting units under the Department to implement the following tasks:

1. For applications, requests submitted before January 1, 2023

1.1 Cases of continuing to use the current document forms to process applications with some minor modifications to the format (no need to wait for review and modification in accordance with the Law on amended and supplemented some articles of Intellectual Property Law 2022 (Law on amended and supplemented 2022) or detailed regulations):

a) Decision to accept/refuse to accept applications;

b) Documents related to application withdrawal, amendment, supplement, separation, request for recognition of changes or conversion of the application;

c) Documents related to cancellation or invalidation of protection titles;

d) Documents related to the modification, extension, maintenance, re-grant and grant of copies of the protection title;

dd) Documents related to registration/recordal of industrial property rights transfer contracts;

e) Documents related to industrial design registration applications where the object of protection is not an industrial design of the product which is a part of a complex product or a part of a complex product but visible in the process of exploiting the use of complex products;

g) An intermediate notice of the application, except for some cases mentioned in Section 1.2 of this Notification;

h) The decision to refuse to grant a protection title, except for some cases related to the transitional provision mentioned at Points a.(i) and c.(ii) Section 1.2 of this Notification;

i) The decision to refuse to accept the protection of an international registration mark, except for the case mentioned at Point c.(ii) section 1.2 of this Notification;

k) The decision to accept the protection of an international registration mark;

l) Documents related to complaint settlement;

m) Decision on grant of protection title.

For the above-mentioned documents, the basis for promulgation of such document includes “Pursuant to Article… of the Intellectual Property Law…”, it shall be changed to: “Pursuant to Article … of the Intellectual Property Law dated November 29, 2005 amended and supplemented according to the Law on amended and supplemented some articles of Intellectual Property Law dated June 19, 2009, the Law on amended and supplemented some articles of the Law on insurance business, the Property intellectual Law dated June 14, 2019 and the Law on amended and supplemented some articles of Intellectual Property Law dated June 16, 2022”; keep the same bases for promulgation Decrees and Circulars.

Particularly for the decision to grant a protection title, only citing the provisions of the Law and removing the basis of the provisions of the Circular (as the attached form), and at the same time amending the regulation on the time limit for publication (change “02 months” to “60 days” to be consistent with Article 99 of the Intellectual Property Law).

1.2 Cases that have to wait for the modification of the document forms on the basis of the provisions of the Law on amended and supplemented 2022 or the Decree, Circular detailing and guiding the implementation of this Law

1. a) For industrial design registration applications: (i) Documents related to industrial design registration applications of products that are part of complex products that cannot be seen during the exploitation of the uses of complex products submitted from August 1, 2020 without issuance/refusal decision; (ii) Notification of results of substantive examination of industrial design registration applications, in which a partial refusal is intended.

Bases: Points a and d, Clause 3, Article 4 of the Law on amended and supplemented 2022.

1. b) For invention registration applications: (i) Notification of results of substantive examination, decision to refuse for invention registration applications related to regulations on patent security control; (ii) Notification of results of substantive examination of the invention registration application in which a partial refusal is intended.

Bases: Points c and d, Clause 3, Article 4 of the Law on amended and supplemented 2022.

2022. c) For a trademark registration application: (i) Notice of results of substantive examination of the mark registration application filed in accordance with the national format in which a partial refusal is intended.; (ii) The decision on refusal to grant a protection title/refuse to accept the protection of an international registration mark related to Points e and h, Clause 2, Article 74 and Point b, Clause 3, Article 117 of the Law on amended and supplemented some articles of Intellectual Property Law 2022.

Bases: Points b and d, Clause 3, Article 4 of the Law on amended and supplemented 2022.

2. For applications, requests submitted from 01/01/2023

Temporarily suspend the issuance of documents related to these applications to wait for the review and modification of document forms on the basis of the provisions of the Law on Amending and Supplementing 2022, Decrees and Circulars detailing and guiding enforce this Law.

3. Edit the information in the “Recipients” section in the current document forms, in the direction of editing (“Save: VT, HT” to “Save: VT, HS”) in accordance with the law on records and archives.
4. The Information Technology Center amend the document forms according to point m, Section 1.1 and Section 3 of this Notification in the WIPO IPAS system.

If there are problems in the implementation process, please report to the Legislation and Policy Division to summarize and report to the Director General for consideration and decision.

Source: IPVietnam

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