When an individual or organization owns an invention, they would want to exploit all the benefits from that invention, mainly by mass-producing the invention and selling it commercially. However, if there is no legal protection, there will be no stopping of other parties to do the same once they have learned the technology to produce that invention. Accordingly, the inventor needs to protect their inventions and their rights on that said invention by applying for a patent. So, what are the notes about the patent registration process in Vietnam?
The patent registration procedure in Vietnam follows the first filing principle. This means that if there are multiple patent applications applying for an invention, the patent application with the first filing date or priority date will be registered, provided that all other requirements are satisfied.
In Vietnam, due to the primary nature of the application when examining this type of application, examiners cannot use or refer to international application examination results or find information about the invention on internal and external patent databases.
The patent registration process in Vietnam is highly praised as it encompassed many factors when assessing the patentability of an invention, such as the comprehensive system of guiding documents, the examiner’s personal opinion and professionality, and the overall approach to the patent registration process, among other factors.
When examining the application, all these factors will lead to the final result of the decision to grant a patent to the applicant or not.
One of the most difficult problems that appraisers have to solve when examining a patent registration application is the assessment of the suitability of the subject stated in the application with the type of patent protection certificate.
In order to assess the suitability of the subject, the appraisers will determine whether the subject stated in the application is a technical solution or not by examining the set of technical signs of the subject of the protection claim. In each claim, a technical means is given to solve the specified task in order to achieve the purpose set forth by the invention.
Patent application requirements in Vietnam
The patent application in Vietnam will have the following requirements:
- Only one protection title may be requested per application.
- All documents of the application must be made in Vietnamese. For documents made in other languages as prescribed at Points 7.3 and 7.4 of Circular 01/2007/TT-BKHCN, they must be translated into Vietnamese.
- All documents of the application must be presented vertically on one side of A4 size paper (210mm x 297mm), with margins on all four sides, 20mm wide each, except for supporting documents.
- For documents to be prepared according to the form, it is mandatory to use such forms and fill in the required information in the appropriate places.
- If each document type includes more than one page, each page must be numbered in Arabic numerals.
- Documents must be typed or printed with indelible ink, legible, clean, unerased, unmodified; In case of detecting insignificant spelling errors in documents submitted to the NOIP, the applicant may modify and correct such errors.
- Terms used in the application must be common terms (do not use dialects, rare words, and self-created words). Symbols, units of measurement, electronic fonts, and spelling rules used in the application must comply with Vietnamese standards.
- The application may be accompanied by a supporting document which is an electronic data carrier of part or all of the content of the application.
- A patent registration application must fully satisfy the requirements on the number of copies of documents, samples, drawings, etc.
- The invention mentioned in the application must be classified according to the International Classification of Patents.
Requirements on the invention to be patented in Vietnam
An invention is protected when the following conditions are met:
Novelty
An invention is considered novel if it has not been publicly disclosed in the form of use, written description, or any other form in Vietnam or abroad before the filing date of the patent application or before the priority date in case the patent application claims priority. To be specific, an invention is considered to have not been publicly disclosed if only a limited number of people know about it and are obliged to keep it secret.
An invention shall not be deemed to have lost its novelty if it is disclosed publicly by a person with the right to registration as provided for in Article 86 of the Intellectual Property Law of Vietnam or by a person who obtains information about the invention directly or indirectly from the inventor within 12 months from the date of disclosure.
Inventive step
An invention is considered to have an inventive step if it is based on technical solutions that have been publicly disclosed in the form of use, written description, or in any other form in Vietnam or a foreign country before the filing date or prior to the priority date of the patent application.
The inventive step cannot be created easily for people with average knowledge of the respective technical field.
A technical solution that is an invention disclosed according to the provisions of Clauses 3 and 4, Article 60 of the IP Law of Vietnam cannot be used as a basis for assessing the inventive step of such invention.
Industrial application capability
An invention is considered to be industrially applicable if it can be made possible to manufacture, mass-produce the product, or repeatedly apply the process to which the invention is concerned, leading to a stable result.
Subjects that are not protected
According to intellectual property law, the following subjects are not protected in the name of invention:
- Scientific theories, mathematical methods;
- Diagrams, plans, rules, and methods for carrying out mental activities, training pets, performing games, doing business; Computer Programs;
- The manner in which information is presented;
- The solution that is only aesthetic;
- Plant varieties, animal breeds;
- The production process of plants and animals is mainly biological in nature, not a microbiological process;
- Methods of prevention, diagnosis, and cure of diseases in humans and animals.
The protection validity of a patent in Vietnam
A patent in Vietnam will have 20 years of protection from the date of filing. After the protection terms, the patentee will not have exclusive rights to the patent anymore.
For the utility solution, the patentee will have 10 years of protection from infringements, counting from the date of application.
To maintain the validity of a Vietnam patent, the patentee must pay an annual maintenance fee after the patent is granted.
The procedure to register a patent in Vietnam
To obtain a patent in Vietnam, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Vietnam.
After that, the patent application will go through the formality examination to check if it complies with the requirements of the law and it is patentable.
If there are no issues found, the patent application will be published publicly on the Official Gazette of the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam within 19 months.
After the publication, within 12-18 months, the NOIP will conduct a substantive examination on the patent application.
In case the invention is eligible for protection, the NOIP shall issue a decision to grant a Certificate of Patent Registration within 1 month.
National patent registration procedure
National patent registration procedure in Vietnam can be done by one of two methods:
- Register directly at the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP);
- Register through Intellectual Property Representative (This is a mandatory procedure for non-Vietnamese patent applicants)
International patent registration procedure
Patent registration is territorial in nature. That means patent registration in any country is protected exclusively in that country. However, if the applicant wants to acquire protection for an invention in another country, the patent applicant needs to conduct an international patent registration to the country that he/she wants to protect.
International patent registration methods include:
- Patent registration in other countries based on the Paris Convention. Accordingly, the applicant has the right to claim the priority right of the application for the patent application in another country. The time limit for filing a patent application under the Paris Convention is 12 months from the date of filing.
- Patent registration under PCT. This is the optimal way to ensure applicants have enough time to consider applying to another country that truly offers a business opportunity for the applicant. Waiting time to enter the country phase of each country will be from 30-34 months, depending on the country of application.
You can see a list of Vietnam IP Firms here.