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Legal service for Trademark Registration

SBLAW would like to provide the legal service for trademark registration in Vietnam as follows:

  • To research and assess registrable capability in Vietnam and in foreign countries such as Asean’s nations, Europe Union, The United States, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China and Russia;
  • To consult procedure and represent in submitting an application of trademarks registration in Vietnam and in foreign countries;
  • To maintain and extend validity of trademarks in Vietnam and at abroad;
  • To assess and evaluate infringed capability and co-ordinate with authorized bodies in protecting rights over trademarks being protected in Vietnam and in other countries;
  • To designate lawyers taking part in negotiations, drafting, evaluating, registering contracts which transfers use of rights or own rights, commercial franchise protected in Vietnam and in other countries.
  • To design and value brands and consult in creating identification of the trademarks for internal and external companies.

We will provide clients with services relating to evaluating capability and suggesting measures which aim to develop and maintain the trademarks in Vietnam as well as in foreign countries, and adversarial services after registering and the certificate of protection issued.

IP matter concerning to the pharmaceutical products in Vietnam.

inventionspvn

In IP aspect, set-out requirement are included as but not limited to the following:

– Your trademark must not be confusingly similar to or identical with registered trademarks for the same products of any third parties; and

– The Generic compound must not be infringement over patent invention of any third parties.

Therefore, in order to meet above said IP requirement, your company should:

For trademark:

– You must present a Certificate of Trademark Registration owned by your company; or

– You must present a License Agreement that entitle your company a legitimate use of a trademark in Vietnam; or

– You must present a Letter of Certification by Vietnam National Office of Intellectual Properties, accordingly NOIP confirm your legitimate use of the trademark; or

– You must present a Similarity Search with positive result of a trademark and copy application for the said trademark.

For Invention:

– You must present a Patent owned by your company; or

– You must present a Letter of Certification by NOIP, confirming your legitimate use of the invention in the products (if any).

IP service of SBLAW

SBLaw is a perfect choice for large and medium-sized businesses, local and international corporations and organizations.

SBLAW is a full-serviced law firm, dedicating to many clients who have been working with us for many years, among IBM, AIA, TOTAL, ExonMobil, ESCO, HTC, CSC, LG, DBS bank, ICBC, ING Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Nippon Steel, Innovar Vietnam, SmartEbook.com, UBM, Netrove Venture, Argentina Embassy in Vietnam, MSH (non-government organization), ADRA, Military Bank, VICEM, VINACONEX, VNPT, VTC Online, VSTV, Vinacomin, Trung Nguyen Group, Kinh Do Group Corporation, HIPT, Viettel Real Estate,  VietsovPetro, member companies of PVN such as PVFC, PVFC Invest, PVFC Land, PVFI…

We consider SBLAW as a perfect fit to our business because of its nimble and pragmatic approach to the local market environment. We often engage in very urgent tender response time and SBLAW always commit their senior attorneys to work alongside our sales team to ensure that response are delivered on time – at times working through the night” – Mr. Lewis Truong – Country Legal Counsel & CN IBM

S&BLAW was very professional in their approach and we managed to obtain approvals from various Vietnamese authorities within expected time frame. We are very satisfied and pleased with their assistance and services extended to us” – Mr. Lim Foot Ling – General Manager of Inovar Sdn Bhd

S&BLAW has been handling business affairs in Vietnam to our level of expectation and to date is still being retained by us as our legal advisers” – Mr. Peter Yik – Aministration – MEI HEONG YUEN FOOD IND P/L

“I must praise your services. Right at the beginning when I discussed it with your HCM office, I was confident that your team would do a good job. It is proven. The whole process was smooth and speedy. Thank you.” – Mr. Chen Bin – Director – Bridgemind Consulting Pte Ltd

Conducting a patent clearance search in Vietnam

Conducting a patent clearance search

As the leading patent agent in Vietnam, SBLaw we can assist client with conducting a patent clearance search in Vietnam.

The fee for such patent clearance search in Vietnam is totally dependent on the provided information of client.

Since in each case, client should provide us the required information and then, SBLaw will provide the detail legal procedure, quotation for conducting this service in Vietnam.

 

 

Search and Protect Trademark in Vietnam

In case client would like to search and protect his trademark in Vietnam, client should provide SBLaw the following documents:

REQUIRED INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS

–        Name and address of the Applicant;

–        List of Goods/Services;

–        Specimen of the applied mark;

–        An original Power of Attorney which is simply signed by the Applicant (our form in attachment)

AUTHORIZED WORKS OF SBLAW’S LAWYERS

  •  To consult on the trademark search in Vietnam
  • To conduct a trademark search in Vietnam before officially filing into the NOIP of Vietnam. S&B will immediately announce the result to the CLIENT if the trademark has been registered.
  • To consult on the trademark registration procedure in Vietnam before officially filing into the NOIP of Vietnam
  • To prepare all the forms for trademark registration in Vietnam;
  • To prepare the dossier for trademark registration in Vietnam;
  • To follow up the filed application and report to CLIENT on the application status (in correspondence with stages of application examination in Vietnam)
  • To report, to consult and to deal with the refusal from the NOIP (if any)
  • To receive the certificate of registration in Vietnam and hand over to CLIENT (if any);
  • To consult the usage of the trademark after handing the certificate of trademark registration
  • To record the trademark certificate of registration into the SBLaw’s databases and will remind CLIENT to timely renew the certificate.

Trademark usage in Vietnam

After registering the mark, the applicant should be noted as below circumstances:

–   If the trademark has not been used in 5 consecutive years in Vietnam, it could be requested to cancel the validity of any third party. Therefore, it is required that the mark as used in actual must be the same with the registered mark.

–    After registering the marks in Vietnam, trademark owners could use the symbol “®” for indicating that their trademarks have been protected in Vietnam. If the using of such symbol could make the customer confusing about the right of the owner, it could be punished according to prevailing regulations.

Registration of the trademarks in Vietnam

If client would like to make the registration of the trademark in Vietnam, SBLaw would like to advise as follows:

1.      Attorney fee for trademark registration.

In Vietnam, multi-classes 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.

 2.      Procedure and timeline for trademark registration

The duration for a trademark application from mature to proceed to registration is around 14-18 months from the filing date, involving these stages

(1) examination as to formality and publication on the Gazette ( 3 months);

(2) examination as to substance (9 months) and

(3) issuance of registration certificate for the registered mark (2 months).

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.

 3.      Required documents for trademark registration

–          Name and address of the Applicant;

–          List of Goods/Services;

–          Specimen of the applied mark;

–          An original Power of Attorney which is simply signed by the Applicant (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).

Trademark Cancellation Proceeding in Vietnam

Trademark Cancellation Proceeding in Vietnam

A cancellation action may be filed by any third party at any time within five (5) years from the date of registration if it can be evidenced that the mark does not meet the criteria for protection.

After five years of registration, the registered mark will become incontestable and no cancellation action is available. However, there is no time limit for a cancellation brought on the ground that the trademark owner registered the mark in bad faith.

An invalidation action may be initiated by any interested party if it can be evidenced that i) the validity of the trademark registration is expired ; or ii) the registered mark is not in use within five (5) consecutive years calculated backward in time from the date on which a request for invalidation on the basis of non-use is made to the TM Office by any third party; or iii) the trademark owner no longer exists or terminates its business operation without legitimate successor.

For filing a cancellation/invalidation against a trademark registration, the following documents are required :

(i)  A Power of Attorney, which is signed by the Applicant. No notarization and/or legalization is required ;

(ii)   Documentary evidence in support of the cancellation/invalidation (if any).

Vietnam Trademark Opposition Proceeding

Under the current IP Law of Vietnam, opposition is not considered as a seperate proceeding, it is only considered as a reference in the examination proceeding of trademark applications.

Within a period from the publication date of the application and the date on that a decision on granting a certificate of trademark registration is issued (i.e. during the time of the substantive examination) any interested party may file an opposition against a pending application with the NOIP and in such a case, it has to present the grounds for opposition and provide evidences on which the opposition are based.

For filing an opposition against a pending application, the following documents are required:

(i)     A Power of Attorney, which is signed by the Applicant. No notarization and/or legalization is required.

(ii)    Documentary evidence in support of the opposition (if any).

Recordal of assignment/licence agreement of trademark in Vietnam

The assignment of a registered mark/pending application should be  recorded with the TM Office as soon as possible to make it legally effective and enforceable. To recordal of an assignment agreement, the following documents are required at the time of filing:

i)    A Power of Attorney, which is simply signed by the Assignee or the Assignor. No notarization and/or legalization is required;

ii)    An original or notarized copy of Assignment Agreement, which is simply signed by both Assignor and Assignee in all pages of the agreement. No notarization and legalization is required;

iii)   Original certificate of trademark registration(s), for endorsement purpose.

A trademark license agreement automatically takes effect between two parties as per their agreement, but it must be recorded with the TM Office in order to be effective against a third party. The license of the mark can be recorded with the NOIP only when it is accepted registration by the NOIP. To recordal of a trademark licence agreement, the following documents are required at the time of filing:

i)  A Power of Attorney, which is signed by the Licensee or the Licensor. No notarization and/or legalization is required;

ii)  An original or notarized copy of a License Agreement, which is signed by both Licensor and Licensee in all pages of the agreement. No notarization and legalization is required;

iii)  A copy of trademark registration certificate.

Recordal of change of name and/or address of trademark in Vietnam

Recordal of change of name and/or address of trademark in Vietnam

As stipulated, any changes which likely affect the Trademark Registration, such as change of name and/or address, merger of the trademark owner should be recorded with the TM Office as soon as practicable.

For recordal of change of name and/or address of the trademark owner, the following documents are required at the time of filing:

i)     A Power of Attorney, which is simply signed by the trademark owner. No notarization and/or legalization is required;

ii)    A notarized Declaration of change of name and/or address by the trademark owner, or Certified true copy of the legal document evidencing the change of name and/or address;

iii)     Original certificate of trademark registration(s), for endorsement purpose.

Renewal of Trademark in Vietnam

Law concept: Trademark on computer keyboard

A trademark registration is valid for a period of ten years commencing from the filing date of the application and can be renewed for subsequent ten-year term, ad infinitum.

Late renewal is allowable within a 6 month period after the expiry date of the registration, subject to payment for late renewal.

For filing a renewal application, the following documents are required :

(i)    A Power of Attorney, which is signed by the Applicant. No notarization and legalization is required;

(ii)   An original or simple copy of trademark registration certificate.

Trademark Registration Process in Vietnam

Please be advised that In Vietnam, multi-class applications are acceptable i.e. an application can be filed for more than one class of goods or service with payment of additional fee for additional class. Class headings or general description of goods/services is no longer acceptable.

 To avoid a potential official action, it is necessary to designate the detailed goods, preferably each item of the goods is equivalent or correlative to a basic number listing in the International Classification of G/S of tenth edition of Nice Classification.

 To file a new trademark application in Vietnam, the following information/documents are required:

 i)       Full name and address of the Applicant;

ii)      A phonetic transcription/transliteration and identification of the language used should be indicated if there are any elements of the trademark with wording other than in Roman characters;

iii)     A detailed specification of goods and/or services and its corresponding international class, if known;

iv)    five (12) clear prints/specimens of the mark of a size, which is not more than 80x80mm and not less than 15x15mm;

v)      Number Application and filing date of the basic application if a convention priority is claimed.

vi)    An Original Power of Attorney, which is simply signed by the Applicant. No notarization or legalization is required;

vii)  A certified true copy of the basis application and its sworn Vietnamese translation (if a convention priority is claimed);

 Below is the basic procedure for obtaining a trademark registration in Vietnam:

1. Formality examination

The trademark application as filed shall be subject to examination as to formality within 01 month as from its filing date; however, in practice, it may be extended to further 01–02 months due to the workload of the Trademark Office. In this process, the trademark application shall be examined as to the accuracy of  information, proper classification of goods/services.,etc. If the trademark application is rejected due to its incompliance with the formal criteria, the applicant will be given 01 month for amendment or correction.

 If the trademark application meets all requirement as to formality, the NOIP shall issue a Decision on acceptance as to formality for the trademark application. Any related information of the trademark application shall be accordingly recorded.

2. Publication of Application

 The application is then published in the National Gazette within 02 (two) months from the signing date of the Acceptance Date for opposition purpose. During a period from the publication date to the date on that a decision on granting/refusal of a certificate of trademark registration is issued, any third party shall be entitled to file opposition(s) against pending application(s) with the NOIP.

 3.Substantive examination

 The application is subsequently examined as to registrability to identify whether or not it meets the criteria for protection such as distinctiveness, availability, etc. The result thereof is expected available within 09 from the publication date.

 Upon completion of the substantive examination, if the trademark meets the protection criteria, the NOIP shall issue the Decision on intention to grant a Certificate of Trademark Registration and request the applicant to pay the registration fee. On the contrary, if it does not meet protection criteria, the NOIP shall issue a Notification of refusal and give 02 months for the applicant to respond.

 In case, the applicant does not file the respopnse to NOIP’s Notification in due course or the submitted response is not acceped by the NOIP, the NOIP shall issue a Decision on refusal to grant a Certificate of trademark registration and give 90 (ninety) days for applicant to proceed with Appeal.

 4.Registration

 Fees for granting and publication must be paid within 01 months as from the signing date of Decision on intention to grant a Certificate of Trademark Registration. After the given time, if no fee is paid, the application will be irrevocably dismissed. Whereas, if fees are sufficiently paid, the NOIP shall issue a Certificate of Trademark Registration and forward the original to the applicant.

 In Vietnam, the legal protection of a trademark begins from the date on that the certificate of trademark registration is granted and shall be valid for a period of ten (10) years  from its filing date and can be renewed for consecutive periods of ten years.

The registered trademark needs not be in use in Vietnam at the time of registration, but it is vulnerable toexpunction if it is not used for five (5) consecutive years calculated backward in time from the date on which a request for termination of the validity of the registration is made by any third party. However, if the mark is used or re-used at least 3 months prior to the date of the request for termination, the mark likely avoids the invalidation.

Trademark Search in Vietnam

vietnam trademark search

A trademark search prior to filing a trademark application is not compulsory, however it is highly recommended by us to save time and costs since the duration for trademark registration in Vietnam is rather long, in around one year.

SBLaw is able to conduct registrability searches with the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) and the search report along with our professional opinion regarding the availability and registrability of the mark will be rendered within 5-7 working days.

To enable us to proceed with a trademark search, the following information is necessary:

(i) A clear specimen of the mark ; and

(ii) The list of goods/services and the corresponding international class, if known.