INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

The Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam defines IPR as the rights of organizations, individuals to their intellectual property, including copyrights, industrial property rights and rights to plant varieties.

In this scope, some rights as Industrial Property Rights and Rights to plant varieties are the rights that are only protected under the basis of Protection Title of the Authority.

Industrial Property Rights

Under Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam, IPRs are the rights of organizations, individuals to inventions; industrial designs; layout-designs of semi-conductor integrated circuits; trademarks; trade names, geographical indications, trade secrets created or owned by them and rights to repression of unfair competition.

Trademark is any sign used to distinguish goods or services of different organizations and individuals.

Geographical indications: is a sign used to indicate a product originating from a specific area, locality, region or country.

Trade name is a designation of an organization or individual used in business to distinguish the business entity bearing such designation from other business entities acting in the same field and area of business.

Industrial design is appearance of a product expressed in shapes, lines, dimensions, colors or any combination thereof.

Invention is a technical solution, in form of a product or a process, to resolve a specific problem by utilizing laws of nature.

Layout-design of a semiconductor integrated circuit is a three-dimensional disposition of circuitry elements and interconnections of such elements in a semiconductor integrated circuit.

Trade secret is information obtained from financial, intellectual investment which is undisclosed and susceptible to application in business.

Time of registration:

Time of registration of most of the industrial property objects such as Trademark, Industrial Design, and Geographical Indication is nine months since the date of application, excluding patent for which the minimum registration time is thirty-one months. The time for amendment or suppliment of documents shall not be counted for the  time of registration.

Rights to Plant Varieties

The plant variety over which rights are to be protected is a variety which is bred or discovered and developed, belonging to the List of species able to be protected by State issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, that variety is new, distinct, uniform, stable and has a proper denomination.

Copyrights and Related-Rights

Copyrights are the rights of organizations, individuals to works created or owned by them. Principally, copyrighted-works are all of originative intellectual creation.

Related rights are the rights of organizations, individuals to performances, phonograms, broadcasting programs, satellite signals carrying encrypted program.

Under the Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam, forms of protected works shall include literary, artistic and scientific works, including (i) literary and scientific works, textbooks, teaching materials, and other works expressed in forms of letters or other writing characters; (ii) lectures, presentations and other speeches; (iii) journalistic works; (iv) musical works; (v) dramatic works; (vi) cinematographic works and works created by similar methods; (vii) fine art works and applied art works; (viii) photographic works; (ix) architectural works; (x) graphics, sketches, maps, drawings relevant to topography and scientific works; (xi) folk artistic and literary works; (xii) computer programs and compilations of data. Computer programs shall be protected as a literary work regardless of them being expressed in the source code or object code.

Copyrights shall arise at the moment when a work is created and expressed in a certain material form regardless of its content, quality, form, means, language, whether or not it has been published or registered.

Though copyrights do not need registration, authours, copyrights owners have still registered the works to protect their works at the most effective.

Copyright Office of Vietnam is a competent authority for issuance, re-issuance, replacement and annulment of Copyright Registration Certificate and Related-right Registration Certifcate.

Technology tranfer

The objects of technology transfer shall include technical know-hows, technical knowledge of technology in the form of technological schemes, technical solutions, formulas, technical parameters, technical diagrams or drawings, computer programs containing technical solutions (the transfer of computer programs not containing technological schemes shall be executed under regulations of Copyrights), data information on the transferred technologies; solutions to rationalization of production, technological renewal, exclusive business licensing.

Technology transfer shall be executed on the basis of a written contract. An Agreement on Technology Transfer must be registered at the competent State Agencies.

Assignment of Industrial Property Rights

Assignment of an IPR means the transfer of ownership right by the industrial property owner to another organization or individual.

Assignment of IPR has to be executed in the form of a written contract and shall only be effective upon registration with the state administration authority of industrial property rights.

Licensing of Industrial Property Objects

Licensing of an industrial property object means the permission of the industrial property owner given to another organization or individual to use the industrial property object within the scope of the owner’s use right.

Licensing of an Industrial Property Object has to be executed in the form of a written contract. A licensing contract of and industrial property object shall be effective as agreed by the parties but shall only be effective to a third party upon registration with the state administration authority of industrial property rights.