Registration of industrial design

To file an application for registration of an industrial design in Vietnam, please provide us with the following information and documents:

• Full name, address and nationality of applicant;
• Full name, address and nationality of author(s);
• Certified documents certifying legitimate right of the applicant to file the application for patent of the industrial design, if the applicant's right to file the application is assigned or derived from others;
• Title of the industrial design and the products of which the industrial design is applied for registration;
• If priority right is claimed under the Paris Convention, information on the name of country, application number and filing date of the original foreign application from which priority right is claimed. A certified copy of the priority documents must be provided to us within 3 months from the application filing date in Vietnam;
• Specification of the industrial design with Claims and Abstract in English;
• Six set of drawings, photographs of the design. Each set consists of 3D, front-side, black-size, left-side, right side, topside and bottom-side projection of the design. Size of drawing sheets, photographs shall not be smaller than 90 mm x 120 mm and not be larger than 190 mm x 277 mm;
• Power of Attorney executed by applicant in favor of bizconsult law LLC in the standard form. A copy of the Power of Attorney can be accepted for application filing, provided however that the original must be submitted within 3 months from the application filing date in Vietnam.

Other Information

• Different variations of a design can be filed in a single application or separate applications.
• Duration of formality examination of an industrial design application is 1 month from the filing date. An application, which satisfies with requirements by Intellectual Property Law on the application, shall be accepted legitimate with legitimate filing date.
• Duration of substantive examination of an industrial design application will be 6 months from publication date of application. It should be noted that under the Amended Law on Intellectual Property, effectively 1 January 2010, the duration for substantive examination would not exceed 7 months.
• An industrial design application shall be published within 2 months from the legitimate filing date of application.
• A Patent of Industrial Design becomes effective as of the granting date and is valid for 5 years from the legitimate filing date of the application, which can be renewed maximum two times, each 5 years.

"First to File" Doctrine

In case of several applications filed by different applicants for registration of industrial designs which are identical with or not distinctive with each others, Patent of Industrial Design will only be granted to application which is legitimate and which has earlier priority date or the earliest filing date among those that satisfy conditions for being granted Patent of Industrial Design.

It should be noted that under the Amended Law on Intellectual Property, effectively 1 January 2010, in case of several applications for Patents for several industrial designs which are identical or not significantly differed with each other, Patent shall only be granted to industrial design under its legitimate application which has the earliest priority date or the earliest filing date among those which satisfies conditions for granting Patent. If all of those applications satisfy conditions for granting of Patent and all have the same earliest priority date or earliest filing date, Patent would only be granted to one invention that is agreed by all applicants. If no agreement is reached, all applications shall be refused.

Industrial design

Industrial design is appearance of a product expressed in shapes, lines, dimensions, colors or any combination thereof.

Eligibility for an industrial design to be patented:

An industrial design shall be eligible for protection if it meets the following conditions:

• Must show element of novelty;
• Must show creativity;
• Can be of industrial application.

Novelty of industrial designs

An industrial design shall be considered as new if it significantly differs from other industrial designs that are already disclosed by way of use or description in writing or in any other forms inside or outside the country prior to the filing date or the priority date, as applicable, of the industrial design registration application.

Two industrial designs shall not be considered as significantly different from each other if they are only different in features which are not easily noticeable and memorable and which cannot serve to distinguish these industrial designs as whole.

An industrial design shall be considered as not yet publicly disclosed if it is known to only a limited number of persons who are obliged to keep it secret.

An industrial design shall not be considered as lacking of novelty if it was published in the following circumstances, provided that the industrial design registration application is filed within six (6) months from the date of publication or exhibition:

• It was published by another person without permission of the person having the right to registration as mentioned hereunder;
• It was published in the form of a scientific presentation by the person having the right to registration as mentioned hereunder;
• It was exhibited at a national exhibition of Vietnam or at an official or officially recognized international exhibition by the person having the right to registration as mentioned hereunder.

Creativity of industrial designs

An industrial design shall be considered as creative if, on the basis of an industrial design already publicly disclosed by use or means of a written or oral description or any other form inside or outside the country before the filing date or the priority date, as applicable, of application for patent of industrial design, such industrial design shows creativity which could not be deduced by person with average knowledge of technical field.

Industrial application

An industrial design shall be considered as susceptible of industrial application if it can serve as a model for mass production of the product with appearance embodying the industrial design by industrial or handicraft methods.

Right to file application for patent of industrial design

The following organizations and individuals shall have the right to file application for patent of industrial design:

• Author who have created the industrial design by his or her own efforts and expenses; or
• The organizations or individuals who have invested funds and material facilities to the authors in the form of a job assignment or job hiring unless otherwise agreed by the parties and such agreements are not contrary to the following rule: in case more than one organizations or individuals have jointly created or invested in the creation of industrial design, those organizations or individuals shall all have the right to registration and such right shall only be exercised with their consensus.

A person who has the right to registration may assign that right to other organizations or individuals in the form of a written contract, passing by inheritance in accordance with the law, even when an application has been filed.

The Government shall provide for the right to registration of industrial designs created by using funds and material and technical facilities from the State budget.

Subject matters not protected as industrial designs

• Appearance of a product that is dictated by its technical features of the product;
• Appearance of a civil or an industrial construction work;
• Appearance of a product that is invisible during use of the product.