HÀ NỘI — Registration of geographical indications (GIs) is a good way to protect trademarks, improve a business’ position in the world market and easily enter demanding markets, including the EU, experts said.

Speaking at the workshop on Commitments on the GIs in the EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), jointly held by the European Trade Policy and Investment Support Project (EU-MUTRAP) and the Ministry of Science and Technology in Hà Nội yesterday, experts said counterfeit goods had been plaguing the world. Currently, the EU recognises only the Phú Quốc sausage as a Vietnamese GI product out of the 7,000 GIs granted in the major market.

Trần Việt Thanh, deputy minister of Science and Technology, said GI products could be more competitive than other products as they are recognised for their quality and trademark.

“Việt Nam has several high-quality products unique to each locality. However, the issue of GIs should be given attention as the country has only one GI product in the large EU market,” Thanh said.

He said businesses have not fully understood the importance of the GI registration. Việt Nam should learn from the experience of working in the demanding market to build a GI management system, thus improving its export value.

Jana Herceg, deputy head of the Economics and Trade Section of the EU Delegation to Việt Nam, said the country had several famous products, such as dragon fruit, coffee and tea.

Viet Nam could exploit these products to benefit from the registration of GIs, she said.

The country should build a national system for quality control when considering and recognising GI protection. This could help the country’s products surpass technical barriers to penetrate the EU market, she added.

“GI owners would have both opportunities and challenges. This is why they should focus on enhancing quality, promoting their trademark and marketing their products,” she said.
Lưu Đức Thanh, head of the office’s GI and international brand division, has said in the past that Việt Nam had been selling a number of well-known products without GIs, which had led to the lack of a legal foundation for dealing with counterfeit goods.
Việt Nam currently has 43 products with registered GIs, varying from flowers, fruit and food to consumer goods. They come from across the country, including Hà Giang Province in the northern mountainous region, Quảng Ninh Province in the northeast, Thanh Hóa Province on the northern central coast and Vĩnh Long or Bạc Liêu in the Mekong Delta, according to Đào Đức Huấn, Director of the Rural Development Centre.
He pointed out the lax exploitation and management of Việt Nam’s GIs, resulting in the widespread counterfeiting of GIs domestically and abroad.
An obstacle to GI protection is that producers are working separately. As many producers and farmers have not fully understood the importance of GI protection, they have not attempted to actively co-operate with each other. Instead, they compete unfairly, affecting the creation of products specific to each region.
Huấn also noted the lack of funding for GI registration and overseas market development strategies.
Claudio Dordi, technical assistance team leader of the EU-MUTRAP, said the effective management of GI-registered goods needed the close co-ordination of enterprises, industry associations, local management agencies and independent quality certification bodies in each locality.
Việt Nam and the EU concluded negotiations on their FTA in Brussels last December.
The EVFTA will eliminate 99 per cent of import tariffs on Vietnamese goods delivered to the EU and vice versa after seven to ten years. It is expected to increase Việt Nam’s exports to the EU by 4 per cent and EU exports to Việt Nam by more than 3 per cent each year.
The EU is one of the top trade partners of Việt Nam, with bilateral trade increasing from US$17.75 billion in 2010 to $41.4 billion in 2015. — VNS

Source: http://vietnamnews.vn/economy/298850/businesses-urged-to-promote-gis.html#8CYZXdQ5HBD5EgZx.99

Question: Please provide us the Quotation for Intellectual Property Registration in Vietnam?

Answer: Thank you very much for your interest in our IP service. Regarding the subject matter, as one of the leading Vietnamese law firms, we are capable of assisting you with handling all IP matters in Vietnam in an efficient and cost-competitive manner. For your further information, we cordially invite you to visit our official website at www.sblaw.vn.

Regarding your enquiries concerning the subject matter, we would like to advise you procedure and our fee schedule in relation to the intellectual property registration proceeding in Vietnam as follows:

I.PATENT/UTILITY SOLUTION REGISTRATION

1.Procedure

 1.1. Protection criteria:

A patent shall be eligible for protection in the form of a Patent for Invention/Utility Solution when it satisfies these following conditions:

 1.2 Validity of Patent for Invention/Utility Solution:

Patent for Invention shall have a validity starting from the granting date and expiring at the end of 20 years counting from the filing date.

Patent for Utility Solution shall have a validity starting from the granting date and expiring at the end of 10 years counting from the filing date.

1.3.Procedure and timeline:

A patent application will be examined through the following process:

Kindly note that the term for registration process normally takes longer to several months in practice due to the workload of the NOIP and the slow examination process by the NOIP’s examiner.

1.4.Required documents and information:

For us to filing a patent application, the following documents/information should be provided:

• The Power of Attorney which is only simply to be signed by the Applicant, neither notarization nor legalization is required (The copy of the POA can be accepted at the time of filing but the original one must be lodged within 01 month from the filing date);
• The paper on assignment of the right to file an application in the national phase (if any) within 34 months from the date of priority;

• The copy of the international application (if the applicant requests the entry into the national phase before the date of publication of the international publication);
• Name and address of:

• Applicant;
• Author(s) of invention/utility solution;
• A soft copy in word format of the English specification of the application for translation into Vietnamese is requested to provide via email at the time of instruction.

1.5.Fee schedule

 The basic fees are calculated based on the number of independent claim, pages of Vietnamese specification, priority claims and words of specification of the patent. Details are as follows:

Note: The above cost includes Official fee and Agency fee; exclude 5% VAT, bank charge ($30-40) and communication costs ($30-40); do not include additional fees in case of refusal in formality examination or being opposed by the third party or refusal in sustainable examination. In case of any office action or any possible opposition which may occur during the application proceedings, an additional charge may be incurred, upon your approval.

II.INDUSTRIAL DESIGN REGISTRATION

 1.Procedure

 1.1.Protection criteria:

A industrial design shall be eligible for protection in the form of the grant of a Patent for Industrial Design when it satisfies the following conditions:

1.2.Validity of Patent for Industrial Design:

Patent for Industrial Design shall have a validity starting from the granting date and expiring at the end of 05 years counting from the filing date. It may be renewed for two consecutive terms, each of 05 years.

1.3.Procedure and timeline:

An industrial design application will be examined through the following process:

Kindly note that the term for registration process normally takes longer to several months in practice due to the workload of the NOIP and the slow examination process by the NOIP’s examiner.

2.4.Required documents and information:

For us to filing a patent application, the following documents/information should be provided:

The Power of Attorney which is only simply to be signed by the Applicant, neither notarization nor legalization is required;

Name and address of:

• Applicant;
• Author(s) of industrial design;
• Title of the industrial design;

Indication of the kind of products for which the industrial design is to be used;

1. Priority document (if any);
2. The set of picture of the industrial design under the guideline of SBLAW;

2.5.Fee schedule for registration of 01 industrial design

According to the information as you provided, we are pleased to inform you the registration fee for 01 industrial design in a favorable case is ……………….. (…………………………….).

 Note: This fee include the office fee of NOIP and our agency fee, fee for granting patent; exclude 5% VAT, fee for responding NOIP’s Action, fee for amending the application (If any). We will inform you all arising fees for your decision before taking any action.

 III. TRADEMARK REGISTRATION

3.1.Procedure and Timeline

The duration of a trademark search is around 10-15 working days.

The duration of trademark application is around 14-18 months – from the filing date to the actual receipt of the registration. The process involves these stages: (1) formality examination and publication in the Gazette (3 months); (2) substantive examination (9 months) and (3) issuance of registration certificate of the registered mark (2 months). Kindly note that the term for registration process in practice normally takes up to several months longer due to the workload of the NOIP and the slow examination process by the NOIP’s examiner.

 3.2Fee Schedule

In Vietnam, multi-class application is applicable. The basic fees are calculated based on the number of class of goods/services (G/S) in each application as well as the number of products designated in each class in the application.

Below is the breakdown of charges for search and registration for one trademark in a smooth case, for your consideration:

 Fee for searching of 01 trademark/01 class

 Fee for registration of 01 trademark

Note: The above-quoted fees include Official Fees and Attorney Fees, 5% VAT; do not include additional fees in case of refusal in formality examination or being opposed by the third party or refusal in sustainable examination (e.g: due to similarity/to identity with other trademarks which were already registered…) In case of any office action or any possible opposition which may occur during the application proceedings, an additional charge may be incurred, upon your approval.

 3.3.Required Documents and Information

• Name and address of the Applicant;
• List of Goods/Services;
• Specimen of the applied mark (soft version);
• An original Power of Attorney which is simply signed by the Applicant (our form in attachment) (Please be informed that a scanned/faxed copy of the Power of Attorney is acceptable upon filing provided that the original copy is submitted within 01 month from the filing date).

Having considered the capacity of Japan Patent Office (JPO), the National Office of Intellectual Property of Viet Nam officially recognizes JPO as one of the International Searching (ISA) and Preliminary Examination Authorities (IPEA) for international patent applications originating from Viet Nam under the PCT system as from 01 July 2012. Hence, since the above date, Vietnamese applicants have one more option to select the international searching and preliminary examination authority for their PCT applications, apart from national IP offices of Russia, Sweden, Republic of Korea, Austria and the European Patent Office.