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What is a trademark not to be capable of distinguishing under Vietnam IP Law?

A mark shall be deemed to be indistinctive if it is a sign falling into one of the following categories:

–        Simple shapes and geometric figures, numerals, letters or scripts of uncommon languages, except where such sign has been widely used and recognized as a mark;

–        Conventional signs or symbols, pictures or common names in any language of goods or services that have been widely and regularly used and known to many people;

–        Signs indicating time, place and method of production; category, quantity, quality, properties, ingredients, use, value or other characteristics descriptive of goods or services, except where such sign has acquired distinctiveness by use before the filing of the application for registration of the mark;

– Signs describing the legal status and business sector of business entities;

–        Signs indicating the geographical origin of goods or services, except where such sign has been widely used and recognized as a mark or registered as a collective mark or certification mark as stipulated in this Law;

–        Signs other than integrated marks which are identical with or confusingly similar to registered marks of identical or similar goods or services on the basis of applications for registration with earlier filing dates or priority dates, as applicable, including applications for registration of marks filed pursuant to a treaty of which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member;

–        Signs identical with or confusingly similar to another person’s mark which has been widely used and recognized for similar or identical goods or services before the filing date or the priority date, as applicable;

–        Signs identical with or confusingly similar to another person’s mark which has been registered for identical or similar goods or services, the registration certificate of which has been invalidated for no more than five years, except where the ground for such invalidation was non-use of the mark pursuant to sub-clause (d) of article 95.1 of this Law;

–        Signs identical with or confusingly similar to another person’s mark recognized as a well known mark which has been registered for goods or services which are identical with or similar to those bearing such well known mark, or for dissimilar goods or services if the use of such mark may affect the distinctiveness of the well known mark or the mark registration was aimed at taking advantage of the reputation of the well known mark;

–        Signs identical with or similar to another person’s trade name currently in use if the use of such sign may cause confusion to consumers as to the origin of goods or services;

–        Signs identical with or similar to a protected geographical indication if the use of such sign may mislead consumers as to the geographical origin of goods;

–        Signs identical with, containing or being translated or transcribed from protected geographical indications for wines or spirits if such sign has been registered for use with respect to wines and spirits not originating from the geographical areas bearing such geographical indications;

–        Signs identical with or insignificantly different from another person’s industrial design which has been protected on the basis of an application for registration of an industrial design with a filing date or priority date earlier than that of the application for registration of the mark.

How to protect trademarks?

A mark shall be eligible for protection when it satisfies the following conditions:

It is a visible sign in the form of letters, words, drawings or images including holograms, or a combination thereof, represented in one or more colours. But the most important, the mark is capable of distinguishing goods or services of the mark owner from those of other subjects, not be identical or confusingly with the other registered mark.

What is trademark?

magnifying glass with trademark icon

The trademark owner can be an organization or individual or any legal entity. A trademark is an intellectual property, it usually includes a word, a name, phrase, logo, sign, design, image or a combination of these factor. Therefore, a trademark may be located on a package, a label, a voucher or on the product itself.

Trademark is protected if  two conditions are met:

-Signs is used a trademark as a visible sign that can be in the form of letters, words, pictures, photographs, including three-dimensional image or a combination of the above factors, is expressed by a or more colors.
– Signs that are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of the trademark owner’s goods or services of other subjects

New trademark application for foreign company in Vietnam

If foreign company would like to file new trademark application in Vietnam, S&B Law would like to advise you procedure and our fee schedule in relation to the trademark registration proceeding in Vietnam as follows:

1. Fee 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 registering a trademark in Vietnam, in a smooth case, for your consideration:

Description

Official Fees

(USD)

Attorney’s fee

(USD)

1. Fee for conducting atrademark search in one class

60.00

2. Fee for filing an application for one class of G/S with up to 6 products in each class

40.00

80.00

– Fee for each additional class of G/S in the application

33.00

50.00

– Fee for each additional products in exceed of 6 in each class

7.00

2.00

3. Fee for granting a registration certificate for one trademark in one class of G/S;

21.00

30.00

– for each additional class of G/S in the application

7.00

2.00

TOTAL:

332.00

In words: Three hundred and thirty two US dollars

 

 Note: The above-quoted fees do not include 5% VAT of our service charge, bank charge and actual communication cost. In case of any office action or any possible opposition which may occur during the application prosecution, an additional charge would be incurred, upon the your approval. Further, the trademark search is optional and upon your request. The search will be conducted unofficially with the NOIP, the result of which is available within 5-7 working days.

2. Procedure and timeline

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.   Requiread document and information

–          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) (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.