Chapter III
PROTECTION TITLES
Article 31. Refusal of issuance and issuance of protection titles
1. The Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam shall carry out the procedure for refusing to issue protection titles according to Clause 3 Article 117 of the Law on Intellectual Property for cases prescribed in Clauses 1, 1a, and 2 Article 117 of the Law on Intellectual Property.
2. The Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam shall carry out the procedure for issuing protection titles according to Clause 1 Article 118 of the Law on Intellectual Property and Appendix II of Decree No. 65/2023/ND-CP.
Article 32. National Registers of Industrial Property and Industrial Property Representatives
1. National Registers of Industrial Property shall be established in conformity with the following regulations:
a) National Registers of Industrial Property are the official and public databases of the State, adequately presenting information on the legal statuses of established industrial property rights. National Registers of Industry Property include the following types:
(i) National Register of Inventions;
(ii) National Register of Utility Solutions;
(iii) National Register of Industrial Designs;
(iv) National Register of Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Layout Designs;
(v) National Register of Marks;
(vi) National Register of Geographical Indications.
b) Regarding subject matters of industrial property registered under national procedures, National Registers prescribed in Point a of this Clause shall include sections corresponding to each protection title, and each section shall include:
(i) Information on the protection title: code, issuance date; names of protected subject matters, protection scope/volume, validity period; names and addresses of protection title holder/person registering the geographical indication, geographical indication management organization, name and nationality of the creator of the invention or author of the layout design or industrial design;
(ii) Information on the protection title issuance application (code, submission date, priority date of the application, name of the industrial property representation service provider (if any));
(iii) Any amendment concerning information on amendments to protection title, validity of protection title (validity maintenance, renewal, termination, or abrogation); transfer of ownership, rights to use subject matters of industrial property; number of re-issuance times, re-issuance date, issuance of copies, number of copies (for any co-owner), date of issuance of copies, changes to the industrial property representation service provider (if any), etc.
c) Regarding marks and industrial designs accepted for protection under the international registration procedure, the Part of Internationally Registered Marks and Part of Internationally Registered Industrial Designs in the corresponding National Registers prescribed in Paragraphs (iii) and (v) Point a of this Clause shall include the following sections:
(i) Information on the protection status: decision code and issuance date or protection acceptance date; names of protected subject matters, protection scope/volume, validity period; name and address of the protection title holder and name and nationality of the author of the industrial design;
(ii) Information on the protection title issuance application (code, submission date, priority date of the application, name of the industrial property representation service provider (if any));
d) Regarding geographical indications accepted for protection under international treaties, the Part of International Geographical Indications in the National Register specified in Paragraph (vi) Point a of this Clause shall include the following sections:
(i) Information on the protection status: name of the international treaty, validity date of the international treaty or geographical indication protection acceptance date according to the international treaty; protected geographical indication, protection scope/volume; name and address of the geographical indication management organization;
(ii) Information on documentation concerning the geographical indication of the protection request (international treaty, international agreement on the protection, or database concerning the geographical indication in the protection request (if any));
(iii) Any amendment concerning the legal status of the protected geographical indication: validity status, protection scope/volume, transfer of management rights, etc.
2. The National Register of Industrial Property Representatives shall include sections corresponding to each industrial property representative service provider, specifically:
(i) Information on the industrial property representation service provider (full name, transaction name, address, name recording or removal, and any amendment to such an industrial property representation service provider);
(ii) Information on the list of industrial design representatives of the organization (full names, permanent addresses, practicing certificate codes of each member in the list);
(iii) Information on changes to the list of industrial property representatives (issuance, re-issuance, revocation of practicing certificates, removal, etc.).
3. National Registers prescribed in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article shall be established and archived electronically or in the form of papers by the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam. Anyone can look up electronic registers (if any) or request the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam to provide copies or excerpts from registers, providing that they pay the fees for register excerpt or copy provision services.
Article 33. Disclosure of protection title issuance decisions
1. Any decision on protection title issuance, protection acceptance of internationally registered industrial designs, and protection acceptance of internationally registered marks shall be disclosed by the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam in the Industrial Property Official Gazette within 60 days from the date of the decision, and applicants shall pay disclosure fees as per regulation.
2. Information disclosed under Clause 1 of this Article includes information specified in the corresponding decision (including decision code and date) and the following information:
a) Regarding an invention patent or utility solution patent: name and nationality of the inventor; summary of the invention; drawings enclosed with the summary (if any); international classification of the invention; information concerning application conversion or split, code of the initial application before the split/conversion (if any), etc.; and other information (if any);
b) Regarding an industrial design patent: name and nationality of the author; set of photos or drawings of the industrial design; the number of schemes for the protection request; international classification of the industrial design; information concerning application split, code of the initial application of the split application (if any), etc.; and other information (if any);
c) Regarding a decision on protection acceptance of an internationally registered industrial design: name and nationality of the author; set of photos or drawings of the industrial design; number of schemes for the protection request; international classification of the industrial design; information concerning application split, code of the initial application of the split application (if any), etc.; and other information (if any);
d) Regarding a mark registration certificate: mark samples and list of goods and services bearing the mark according to the international classification table of goods and services; information concerning application conversion or split, the code of the initial application of the split application (if any), etc.; use regulation on collective marks or certification marks (if any); other information (if any);
dd) Regarding a decision on protection acceptance of an internationally registered mark: mark samples; goods and services bearing the mark according to the international classification table of goods and services; and other information (if any);
e) Regarding a geographical indication registration certificate: summary of the characteristics of products with the geographical indication and names of products with the geographical indication; and other information (if any);
g) Regarding a semiconductor integrated circuit layout design registration certificate: name and nationality of the author and other information (if any), excluding confidential information as per regulation.
3. A geographical indication accepted for protection under an international treaty shall be disclosed by the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam in the Industrial Property Official Gazette within 60 days from the date of acceptance. Necessary information concerning the mentioned geographical indication shall be disclosed under Clause 2 Article 11 of Decree No. 65/2023/ND-CP, including name, a summary of the characteristics of products and names of products with that geographical indication; protection scope/area of the geographical indication; and other information (if any).
Article 34. Grounds to terminate validity of protection titles
1. An invention protection title shall have its validity terminated when the invention with the issued protection title exceeds the presented scope in the initial description of the invention registration application according to Point dd Clause 2 Article 96 of the Law on Intellectual Property, e.g., in cases where the description of an invention has changes to its content, leading to information without direct or clear origin compared to the initial description of the application or making persons with average knowledge of the corresponding technical field fail to implement such an invention, specifically:
a) One or more technical signs to the description that cannot be determined directly or clearly from the initial description are added to the description by the applicant while amending or supplementing the application;
b) Additional information (including information on the purpose, efficiency, etc.) cannot be determined directly or clearly from the initial description (including drawings) and/or the initial protection request to clearly present the invention or adequately present the protection request;
c) Contents added to the description are technical signs related to the size specifications collected by measuring the size specifications of drawings;
d) Details or components added to the description are not mentioned in the initial description of the application, leading to special effects that are not included in the initial application;
dd) Effects and/or benefits added to the description cannot be determined by persons with average knowledge of the corresponding technical field from the initial application;
e) Changes to technical signs of the protection requests and the changed technical signs are not directly or clearly presented or determined from the initial description;
g) New contents are added by changing undetermined contents to determined and specific contents;
h) Independent technical signs of the initial application are combined into one new technical sign when the relation between such technical signs is not presented in the initial application;
i) One or more technical signs in the description are changed compared to the initial description;
k) One technical sign necessary for the subject matters of the protection request to achieve the set goal is removed from the protection request points, and/or the removal of such a technical sign changes another or more technical signs.
2. A mark protection title shall have its validity terminated due to the mark registration application is submitted for malicious intent according to Point a Clause 1 Article 96 of the Law on Intellectual Property in the following cases:
a) There are grounds to determine that at the time of applying, the applicant knows or has grounds to know that the mark subject to the registration is identical or similar to the point of indistinguishability from another mark used widely in Vietnam or a popular mark at another country used for identical or similar goods and services; and
b) The registration is aimed to take advantage of the reputation and prestige of the mark mentioned above for profiteering; or to resell, license, or transfer registration rights to persons with marks prescribed in Point a of this Clause; or to prevent the market entry of persons with marks prescribed in Point a of this Clause to limit their competitiveness; or to conduct acts contrary to other fair trade practices.
3. Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article shall also be applied when processing invention and mark registration applications.
Tìm kiếm
Thông tư 23/2023/TT-BKHCN hướng dẫn luật sở hữu trí tuệ và nghị định 65/2023/NĐ-CP hướng dẫn luật sở hữu trí tuệ về sở hữu công nghiệp, bảo vệ quyền sở hữu công nghiệp, quyền đối với giống cây trồng và quản lý nhà nước về sở hữu trí tuệ (Bản Word)
Thông tư 23/2023/TT-BKHCN hướng dẫn luật sở hữu trí tuệ và nghị định 65/2023/NĐ-CP hướng dẫn luật sở hữu trí tuệ về sở hữu công nghiệp, bảo vệ quyền sở hữu công nghiệp, quyền đối với giống cây trồng và quản lý nhà nước về sở hữu trí tuệ (Bản Pdf)