Vietnam: Amendments In Intellectual Property Laws In Vietnam

Much awaited fourth amendment to the IP laws of Vietnam finally comes into force today i.e. on January 15, 2018. Circular No. 16/2016/TT-BKHCN (also called Circular No. 16), which was issued on June 30, 2016 by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Vietnam which amends...

Vietnam: ASEAN Patent Examination Co-Operation (ASPEC) Program

The ASEAN Patent Examination Co-operation (ASPEC) is the first regional patent work-sharing program among ASEAN IP Offices, with objective of reducing duplication of the patent search and examination (S&E) work, thereby saving time and improving the quality of S&E results. Currently, almost all the ASEAN member states (AMS) are part...

Fake, low quality pesticides ‘out of control’

HCM CITY – A severe shortage of funds and personnel has resulted in such loose management of pesticides in the southern region that most of the market is “out of control,” agriculture officials say. Each province has just two inspectors working for the Cultivation and Plant Protection Division. These two...

SBLAW Is Ranked Top 1 In The Field Of Intellectual Property By The Legal 500

SBLAW is ranked by The Legal 500 as Top 1 by the Legal 500 for the year of 2018, we would like to show the comments from this organisation. SB LAW’s ‘professional, responsive and experienced team’ provides ‘an excellent service’. Pham Duy Khuong advises well-known Vietnamese and international businesses on...

Vietnam elected WIPO General Assembly Chairman

Ambassador Duong Chi Dung, head of Vietnam’s Permanent Mission to the UN, the WTO and other international organisations in Geneva, has been elected Chairman of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) General Assembly for 2018-2019. The election was made by representatives of all 191 WIPO member countries at the WIPO...

Vietnam promotes e-filing system at intellectual property office

 Vietnam will work harder to raise public awareness of e-filing system in intellectual property (IP) registration, which has been put into place earlier this year by the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP), said Le Ngoc Lam, NOIP deputy head. The system benefits both file submitters and IP...

The Minister of Science and Technology has handed over the Decision on appointment of the Director General of the National Office of Intellectual Property and De

On 06/3/2017, the Minister of Science and Technology has announced and handed over the Decision appointing Mr. Dinh Huu Phi to hold the position of Director General of the National Office of Intellectual Property and Mr. Pham The Dung to hold the position of Deputy Director General of the...

Record Year for International Patent Applications in 2016; Strong Demand Also for Trademark and Industrial Design Protection

China’s ZTE Corporation overtook its crosstown rival Huawei Technologies as the biggest filer of international patent applications via WIPO in 2016 and U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. claimed third position amid another year of strong demand for WIPO’s intellectual property filing services for patents, trademarks and industrial designs. Overall, applicants based in...

Australia: IP Australia launches intellectual property mediation service

On 10 July 2017, IP Australia launched its IP Mediation Referral Service. The intent of the service is to encourage intellectual property disputes to be resolved more cost effectively through mediation instead of litigation or other adversarial procedures. What is the IP Mediation Referral Service The IP Mediation Referral Service...

IP rights violations alarm agencies

Many Vietnamese food producers have reported breaches and misuse of their brand images, with not only domestic firms but also foreign firms violating Vietnamese producers’ intellectual property (IP) rights. During a Wednesday forum in HCM City on the food sector’s protection of IP rights, the HCM City Market Watch reported...

PROTOCOL AMENDING THE WTO TRIPS AGREEMENT OFFICIALLY ENTERED INTO FORCE

On the sidelines of the 47th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos City, Switzerland (Davos 2017), in the morning of 19 January (local time), Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a meeting with Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Roberto Azevedo. At the...

REGULATIONS ON THE CRIMES OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF CRIMINAL CODE 2015

No Criminal Code 1999 Criminal Code 2015 1 Article 170.- Breaching the regulations on the granting of industrial property protection deeds 1. Those who are competent to grant protection deeds and breach the law provisions on the granting of industrial property protection deeds, have already been disciplined or administrative sanctioned for such act but...

VN franchise rules under pressure to change

At the end of the 1990s, franchise was still a strange concept to most people in Việt Nam. There were no opportunities to enjoy or even see the products and services of the world’s well-known brands in Việt Nam. KFC, McDonald, Starbucks and Lotteria were not familiar names for Vietnamese youth....

Counterfeiting on the Rise in Vietnam

The Market Surveillance Agency (MSA) of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, one of the bodies enforcing intellectual property and compliance laws in Vietnamese market, has been very active in the course of 2016. Since the beginning of this year it has made nearly 150,000 inspections and found evidence...

Valued Added Tax on IP Licensing in Vietnam

Until last month, it was understood that no Intellectual Property license was subject to value added tax VAT under Vietnamese law, benefiting from an exemption based on the principle that technology transfers, being beneficial to the Vietnamese economy, were to be encouraged. This, however, has changed after the Ministry...