According to the 2005 Intellectual Property Law, amended and supplemented in 2019, industrial property rights (“IP rights”) are rights of organizations and individuals for the following 07 subjects:
- Invention: a technical solution in the form of a product or process which is intended to solve a problem by application of natural laws.
- Industrial design: the outward appearance of a product embodied in three dimensional configuration, lines, colours or a combination of such elements.
- Design of semi-conducting closed circuits(hereinafter referred to as layout design): a three dimensional disposition of circuit elements and their interconnections in a semi-conducting closed circuit.
- Mark: any sign used to distinguish goods or services of different organizations or individuals.
- Trade name: the designation of an organization or individual used in business activities in order to distinguish the business entity bearing such trade name from other business entities in the same business sector and area.
- Geographical indication: the sign used to identify a product as originating from a specific region, locality, territory or country.
- Trade secret and the right to prevent unfair competition, in which, trade secret is information obtained from activities of financial or intellectual investment, which has not yet been disclosed and which is able to be used in business.
The registration of IP rights protection is not mandatory but beneficial for businesses. One of the most obvious benefits of IP rights protection is the exclusive right to use the IP objects. IP objects are often innovative and profitable products. Therefore, holding IP rights to their products will create certain competitive advantages for enterprises in the market.
In addition to the benefits of IP rights protection registration, enterprises can also improve their business efficiency by collecting IP information.
IP information is the information published in documents of inventions, utility solutions, designs of semi-conducting closed circuits, industrial designs, marks, and geographical indications. It is information related to technical, legal and business status of IP rights subjects, it also includes information about the applicant, author, submission date, and priority date.
With this information, businesses can clearly determine the ability to be protected of each specific object, avoid the risk of infringing on the IP rights of others, get information about creation activities and determine business direction of related enterprises in the market, thereby make appropriate business decisions, such as signing a license contract, investing or cooperating with potential businesses, etc.
In order to access IP information, on November 30, 2022, the National Office of Intellectual Property (“NIP”) issued Official Letter No. 10839/SHTT-TTTT guiding the search for IP information, specifically through the following channels:
- The NIP's announcement: is a document issued by the NIP around the 25th of every month. This is a collection of IP registration applications being accepted as valid applications and IP protection titles granted by the NOIP. The announcement consists of two volumes, volume A and volume B, in which, volume A includes IP registration applications; Volume B includes IP patents. They could be found in the monthly announcements or through the Announcement Searching Tool;
- Wipopublish tool: a modern searching tool developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for Vietnam. This tool supports users to look up information according to each group of IP objects, including industrial designs, inventions, and trademarks. Users can type keywords in one of the available fields, such as application number, applicant, submission date, trademark/patent/industrial design name, the system will provide all relevant results. Instructions for using Wipopublish is provided here.
- The IP databases of WIPO and ASEAN are as follows:
- The WIPO's global patent searching tool includes Vietnamese data: This tool provides information on 108 million patents, including international patent applications based published on the WIPO database and associated databases.
- The WIPO's global trademark searching tool includes Vietnamese data: The tool provides information on trademark registration applications, appellations of origin, international non-exclusive names based on WIPO's database and associated databases.
- The ASEAN Trademark Searching Tool includes Vietnamese data: The tool provides information on registered trademarks protected in ASEAN countries (except Myanmar).
- The ASEAN Industrial Design Searching Tool includes Vietnamese data: The tool provides information on the registered industrial designs protected in ASEAN countries (except Myanmar).
Comment: