To increase the efficiency of prosecuting and protecting intellectual property rights, the Vietnamese government recently implemented various changes to the structure and practice of its National Office of Intellectual Property (“NOIP”). These recent changes are summarized below. Over time, these changes will improve the efficiency and consistency of prosecuting and protecting intellectual property rights in Vietnam.
Ministry of Science and Technology Circular No. 16/2016/TT-BKHCN (Effective 15 January 2018)
The changes are specified in this recent Circular which improves application filings as it reformulates the rules pertaining to agent authorization requirements, as follows:
- The Power of Attorney (POA) by which an Applicant authorizes its representative to act in its name must be in writing, specifying Applicant’s full name and address, its representative and any sub-agent, the scope of the authorization, the duration (if applicable) and the execution date.
- The POA must be filed in original form, and late filing is possible for up to 1 month after the application filing date (for registration, recordal, renewal, opposition or cancellation applications) or up to 10 days from the filing date of appeal applications.
- For late filings, the POA execution date must not be later than the relevant application filing date, unless the scope of authorization under the POA specifically provides for ratification of earlier acts carried out by the Applicant’s agent or if the POA specifies an earlier Effective Date.
- If an Examiner finds a submitted POA deficient, the Examiner will issue a notification requesting submission of a corrected or new POA within 2 months from the notification issuance date, with a possibility of a further 2-month extension.
Ministry of Science and Technology Decision No. 2525/QD-BKHCN (Effective 4 September 2018)
This recent Decision created a major reorganization of the NOIP, and modified the name of the NOIP to The Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (“IP Vietnam”). Previously, the NOIP consisted of several divisions of various sizes and functional attributes. This Decision regrouped these existing divisions into new centres and created new centre-level units to perform specialized functions, as follows:
- Trademark Examination Centre – formed by combining the two former Trademark Divisions;
- Patent Examination Centre – formed by combining the three former Patent Divisions;
- Industrial Design Examination Centre – reconstituted from the former Industrial Design Division;
- Geographical Indication and International Trademark Centre – reconstituted from the former Geographical Indication and International Trademark Division, with responsibilities for examining geographical indication applications and trademark applications entering Vietnam through the Madrid Protocol channel;
- Post-grant of Protection Examination Centre – newly established with specific competence in handling post-grant actions such as renewals and recordals of assignments and changes of registration details.
The recent changes in Vietnam’s intellectual property administration rules and practices as summarized above demonstrate Vietnam’s ongoing significant efforts to rationalize its administrative structures and practices to reflect international norms for intellectual property and to improve efficiencies. At present, large case backlogs burden IP Vietnam, and while the recent restructuring initially created further delays, we expect that – over time – these developments will improve consistencies, efficiencies and the speed of examination processes for intellectual property matters in Vietnam.