1. Minimum documents
– 02 Declaration for registration which are typed according to form No. 03-KDCN Appendix A of Circular No. 01/2007/TT-BKHCN;
– 01 copy of the industrial design description; [a description of the industrial design description must satisfy the general requirements specified at Points 33.5 of Circular No. 01/2007/TT-BKHCN and must be contains the following contents:
+ Name of the industrial design;
+ Field in which the industrial design is used;
+ The most similar industrial design;
+ List of photos or drawings;
+ Detailed description of the industrial design;
+ Coverage of protection (or claim for protection) of the industrial design].
– 04 sets of photos or 04 sets of drawings of an industrial design.
– Fee and charge receipts.
2. Other documents (if any)
– Power of attorney (in case the request is filed through a representative);
– Paper on assignment of the right to file an application (if any);
– Documents certifying the lawful right of registration (in case the applicant enjoys the right to file from another person);
– Documents evidencing the right of priority (if the patent application has a claim for priority right).
3. General requirements for industrial property (IP) registration applications
– Each application can request grant of one protection title which is of a type suitable to the industrial design stated in the application;
– All documents of the application must be in Vietnamese. For documents that are allowed to made in another language according to the provisions of Points 7.3 and 7.4 of Circular No. 01/2007/TT-BKHCN must be translated into Vietnamese;
– All documents of the application must be presented in the portrait format (particularly, drawings, figures, charts and tables may be presented landscape) on A4 paper sheets (210 mm x 297 mm), of which the top, bottom, left and right margins are all 20 mm, in Times New Roman font, text is not smaller than size 13, except for accompanied documents originally not intended to be included in the application;
– For documents that must be made according to pre-designed forms, those forms shall be used with all necessary information filled in appropriate sections;
– A document consisting of many pages must have page numbers in Arabic;
– All documents must be typewritten or printed with a non-fading ink, clear and clean, and free from erasures and modifications; if detecting any negligible spelling error in a document submitted to the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam (IPVN), the applicant may correct such error but shall append his/her signature of certification (and a seal, if any) at the corrected words;
– Terms used in the application must be common ones (other than dialects, rare words, coined words). Symbols, units of measurement, electronic fonts and spelling rules used in the application must conform to Vietnam standards;
– The application may be accompanied with carriers of electronic data of part or the entire content of its documents.
4. Fees and charges for industrial design registration
– Official charges for filing application: VND 150,000/ 01 application;
– Fee for classification service VND 100,000/ 01 classification.
– Fee for examination: VND 700,000/ 01 object;
– Fee for publication of application: VND 120,000/ 01 application;
– Fee for publication application from the 2nd image onwards VND 60,000/ 01 image;
– Fee for the industrial design search for the examination process: VND 480,000/ 01 object;
– Fee for examination of requesting priority (if any): VND 600,000/ 01 priority application;
Note:
Apart from sections that need to be filled in, the written declaration must state the criteria for classification of the industrial design sought to be protected in accordance with the International Industrial Design Classification (under the Locarno Agreement). If the applicant fails to classify or inaccurately classifies the industrial design, the IPVN shall carry out the classification for which the applicant shall pay a fee as prescribed. (VND 100,000/ 01 classification).
5. Time limit for processing industrial design registration applications
From the date on which the registration application is received by the IPVN, the registration application of an industrial design shall be examined in the following order:
– An industrial design registration application shall have its formality examination within 01 month from the filing date;
– Publication of industrial design registration applications: An industrial design registration application shall be published within 02 months after it is accepted as a valid application;
– An industrial property registration application shall be substantively examined within 07 months from the date of application publication.
6. Methods of filing application
The applicant may choose paper filing or online filing through the IPVN’s online public service portal, specifically as follows:
a) Paper filing
The applicant may submit an application for an industrial design directly or via postal service to one of the IPVN’s application receiving places, specifically as follows:
– Head Office of IPVN, address: 386 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi City.
– Representative Office of IPVN in Ho Chi Minh City, address: 7th Floor, Ha Phan Building, 17/19 Ton That Tung, Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
– Representative Office of IPVN in Da Nang City, address: 3rd floor, 135 Minh Mang, Khue My ward, Ngu Hanh Son district, Da Nang city.
In case of filing an application for an industrial design by post, the application charges/ fees must be transferred by postal service, then a copy of the Money Transfer Receipt must be attached to application and send to one of the above-mentioned IPVN’s office to prove the amount paid.
(Note: If the fee or charge is transferred to one of the above-mentioned IPVN’s application-receiving places, the applicant must send the dossier to the corresponding application-receiving point).
b) Online filing
– Conditions for online filing: Applicants need to have a digital certificate, a digital signature and a registed account which is approved by the IPVN on the Online Application Receiving System.
– Online filing:
+ The applicant need to complete the steps of filing an industrial design application form on the IPVN’s Online Application Receiving System. After that, a confirmation of online submission will be sent to the applicant.
+ The confirmation of online submission must be presented to one of the IPVN’s office and the applicant needs to attached documents (if any) and pay fees/ charges as prescribed within 01 month from the date of online submission.
+ If all documents and fees/ charges mentioned above are fully submitted as prescribed, an IPVN’s officer will issue the application number in the Online Application Receipt System.
If one of the documents and fees/ charges is not fully submitted, the application will be denied.
In the event that the applicant fails to complete the prescribed application procedure, the online application procedure will be canceled and the Online Application Cancellation Notice will be sent to the applicant via the Online Application Receiving System.
