Registration of Copyright, Related Rights

To file an application for registration of copyright or related rights in Vietnam, the applicant please provides us with the following information and documents:

• Information on the author/owner:
  • Full name, address, telephone and fax number of owner (and author);
  • Date of birth and nationality of the owner (and author). If owner is an organisation, date and number of incorporation and business registration of such organisation and granting authority;
  • Address, telephone and fax number of the applicant, if the applicant is other than owner and author;

• Information on work to be registered:
  • Title of work;
  • Type of work. If work registered is translated, adapted, rewritten, transformed work, provide title of original work and author of such work;
  • Date and place of the first publication of work;
  • Form of the first publication;
  • Summary of the main contents of work.

• Two copies of work to be registered or two copies of the fixation of the subject matter for registration of its related rights;
• A notarized copy of identity card or passport of the author;
• Documents proving legitimate right to file application for registration of copyright of the work, if the applicant is not the author and has such right from author to file application;
• An original agreement from all co-authors of the work to authorize applicant to file and stand name in the applicaton, if the work is created by a group of authors;
• An original agreement from all co-owners of the work, if the work is jointly owned by such owners;
• A notarized Power of Attorney executed by the applicant in favor of bizconsult law LLC.

Copyright

Copyright is the rights of organizations, individuals to works created or owned by them. Copyright include moral rights and property rights.

Personal rights

Personal rights include the following rights:

• To name his or her work;
• To put his or her real name or pseudonym in the work; to have his or her real name or pseudonym mentioned when his or her work is published or used;
• To publish his or her work or authorize another person to do so;
• To protect the integrity of his or her work, to object to any alteration, mutilation, distortion or other modification in any form which prejudice against his or her honor and prestige.

Property rights

Property rights include the following:

• To create the derivative work;
• To perform the work to the public;
• To reproduce the work;
• To circulate to the public the original or copies of the work;
• To communicate the work to the public by wire or wireless means, through electronic information network or by any other technical means;
• To lease the original or copies of a cinematographic work or a computer program.

Forms of protected works

• Literary, artistic and scientific works protected including:
  
  • Literary and scientific works, textbooks, teaching materials, and other works expressed in forms of letters or other writing characters;
    
  • Lectures, presentations and other speeches;
    
  • Journalistic works;
    
  • Musical works;
    
  • Dramatic works;
    
  • Cinematographic works and works created by similar methods (hereinafter referred to as cinematographic works);
    
  • Fine art works and applied art works;
    
  • Photographic works;
    
  • Architectural works;
    
  • Graphics, sketches, maps, drawings relevant to topography and scientific works;
    
  • Folk artistic and literary works;
    
  • Computer programs and compilations of data.

• Derivative works shall only be protected if they do not infringe the copyrights in respect of the works used to make derivative works.

• Protected works must be created directly by author's intelligence without reproducing others' works.

Subject matter excluded from copyrights protection

• Information just for the purposes of communication;
• Legal normative documents, administrative documents, other documents in the judicial sector and the official translation thereof;
• Processes, systems, method of operation, definitions, principles and statistics.
• Use of published works without obtaining permission and paying royalties, remuneration
• The following forms of use of published works without obtaining permission and paying any royalties, remuneration:
  • Self - reproducing one single copy for the purposes of science research and individual teaching;
  • Reasonable quoting works without alteration of their contents for commentary or for illustration in one's own works;
  • Quoting from a work without alteration of their contents for use in articles, periodic journals, radio and television programs and documentary films;
  • Quoting from a work for teaching in schools without alteration of the contents not for commercial purposes;
  • Copying a work for archives in libraries for the purposes of research;
  • Performing dramatic works and other forms of performing arts in cultural gatherings or in promotional campaigns without any form of charges;
  • Directly recording and reporting performances for public information and educational purposes;
  • Taking pictures of or televising works of fine art, photographic, and applied art that have already been publicly displayed for introduction purposes;
  • Translating a work into Braille or the like;
  • Importing copies of others' works for personal use only.

• Persons and legal persons who use the works as stipulated in the preceding paragraph shall not make any affect to normal exploitation of the works or prejudice the rights of the authors or copyright owners; they must provide information about the name of the authors and origins of works.

• Any use of works as stipulated in the preceding paragraph is not applicable to architectural, fine art works or computer programs.

Use of published works without obtaining permission but paying royalties, remuneration

• Broadcasting organizations using published works for the purpose of carrying out broadcasting programs with sponsorship, advertisements or collection of money in any form shall not be liable for obtaining permission from, but shall be liable to pay royalties or remunerations to, the copyright owner in accordance with the Government regulations;
• Organizations and individuals when using the works stipulated in the preceding paragraph must not influence the normal exploitation of works and must not prejudice rights of authors or copyright owners, and must provide information about the name of the author and origin of the works;
• The use of works referred to in the preceding paragraph shall not apply to cinematographic works.
  

Copyrights infringement

• Seizing copyrights of a literary, artistic, scientific work;
• Assuming the author's name of a work;
• Publishing, disseminating a work without its author's permission;
• Publishing, disseminating a co-author work without permission of other co-author(s);
• Modifying, mutilating or distorting a work in any forms, which is prejudicial to the author's honor and prestige;
• Copying a work without permission of the author or the copyrights owner, except for the cases stipulated in Articles 25 of the Intellectual Property Law;
• Make derivative works without permission of the author or the copyrights owner of the work used to make such derivative work, except forms of use of works stipulated in Articles 25 of the Intellectual Property Law;
• Exploiting a work of without permission of copyrights owner, without paying royalties and remuneration and other material benefits under the law; except forms of use of works stipulated in Articles 25 of the Intellectual Property Law;
• Renting a work without any payment of royalties, remuneration and other material benefits to its author and copyrights owner;
• Photocopying, producing, disseminating, publishing, displaying or communicating a work to the public by broadcasting network or digital devices without permission of the copyrights owner;
• Publishing a work without permission of the copyrights owner;
• Intentionally canceling or invalidating technical methods applied by the copyrights owner to protect copyrights of his or her work;
• Intentionally erasing or amending electronic information on copyrights management of a work;
• Producing, assembling, altering, distributing, importing, exporting, selling or leasing an item of equipment when knowing or having basis to know that such equipment is used for invalidating the technical measures taken by the copyright owner to protect the copyright to his/her works;
• Making and selling a work of which the author's signature is being forged;
• Exporting, importing, disseminating copies of a work without permission of the copyrights owner.

Related rights

Related rights are the rights of organizations, individuals to performances, phonograms, broadcasting programs, satellite signals carrying encrypted program.

Subject matters of related rights protection

• A performance shall be protected if it is one of the following cases:
  • Performance of Vietnamese citizens performed in Vietnam or abroad;
  • Performance of foreigners performed in Vietnam;
  • Performance fixed on a phonogram that is protected;
  • Performance that has not been fixed on a phonogram but is broadcasted and such broadcast are protected;
  • Performance protected in accordance with international treaties to which Vietnam is party.

• A phonogram shall be protected if it is one of the following cases:
  • Phonogram of producer who is with Vietnamese nationality;
  • Phonogram of the producer protected in accordance with international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is party.

• A broadcast, a satellite signal carrying encrypted program shall be protected if it is one of the following cases:
  • Broadcast, satellite signal carrying encrypted program of an organization with Vietnamese nationality;
  • Broadcast, satellite signal carrying encrypted program of the organization protected in accordance with international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is party.

Performances, phonograms and broadcasts and satellite signals carrying encrypted program shall only be protected provided that they do not influence the copyrights exercise.

Rights of performers

• Performers who are at the same time investment owners have personal rights and property rights to their performances; where performers are not investment owners, they shall have the personal rights and the investment owner shall have the property rights in respect of such performances.
• Personal rights include the following rights:
  • Acknowledge performer's name upon the performance or distribution of phonograms, or broadcast of his or her performance;
  • Protect his or her performance image and object to any modification, mutilation, distortion of his or her performances in any form that would be prejudicial to his or her honor and prestige.

• Property rights include the exclusive right to carry out or to authorize any of the followings:
  • Fix his or her live performance in phonograms;
  • Directly or indirectly reproduce a fixation of his or her performance;
  • Broadcast and communicate to the public his or her unfixed performance, except where such performance for broadcasting purposes;
  • Distribute to the public a fixation of his or her performance or copies thereof by sale, rental, or any other technical means accessible to the public.

Rights of producers of phonograms

• The producer of a phonogram shall have the exclusive right to carry out or authorize any of the following acts:
  • Directly or indirectly reproduce his or her phonogram;
  • Distribute to the public the original or copies of the phonogram by sale, rental or distribution or any other technical means accessible to the public;

• The producer of a phonogram shall have the right to get material benefits when his or her phonogram is distributed to the public.

Rights of Broadcasting Organizations

• A broadcasting organization shall have the exclusive right to carry out or to authorize any of the following acts:
  • Broadcast or rebroadcast its broadcast;
  • Distribute to the public its broadcast;
  • Fix its broadcast;
  • Reproduce a fixation of its broadcast;

• A broadcasting organization shall have the right to get material benefits when their broadcasting programs are recorded, broadcasted and distributed to the public.

Use of related rights without obtaining permission and paying royalties and remuneration

• The following forms of use of related rights shall not require obtaining permission and paying royalties and remuneration:
  • Duplication by oneself of one single copy of works for the purpose of personal scientific research;
  • Duplication by oneself of one single copy of works for the purpose of teaching activities, except when phonograms, or broadcasting programs have been published for teaching;
  • Reasonable quotation the purpose of providing information only;
  • A broadcasting organization temporarily makes a phonogram by itself for broadcasting when it is entitled to the right to broadcast.

• Persons and legal persons who use the rights as stipulated in the preceding paragraph do not make any affects to the normal exploitation of the performances, phonograms and broadcasting programs, and do not prejudice the rights of the performers, phonogram producers or broadcasting organizations.

Use of related rights without obtaining permission but paying royalties and remuneration

• Organizations and individuals using related rights in the following cases shall not be liable for obtaining permission from, but shall be liable to pay royalties or remunerations as agreed to, the authors, copyright owners, performers, sound/video recordings and broadcasting organizations:
  • Directly or indirectly using a published sound/video recording for commercial purpose in order to carry out broadcasting programs with sponsorship, advertisements or collection of money in any form;
  • Using a published sound/video recording in their business and commercial activities.

• Organizations and individuals using the rights as referred to in the preceding paragraph must not influence the normal exploitation of performances, sound/video recordings and broadcasting programs and must not prejudice to the rights of performers, sound/video recording producers and broadcasting organizations.

Related Rights Infringement

• Abrogating the rights of performers, producers of phonograms, broadcasting organizations;
• Assuming the names of performers, producers of phonograms, broadcasting organizations;
• Publishing, producing and communicating to the public fixed performances, phonograms, broadcasts without the permission of performers, producers of phonograms, broadcasting organizations;
• Modifying, mutilating or distorting performances in any form which prejudice to honor and prestige of performers;
• Reproducing, extracting fixed performances, phonograms, broadcasts without the permission of performers, producers of phonograms, broadcasting organizations;
• Removing or altering any right management information in electronic format without permission of the related right owner;
• Intentionally canceling or invalidating technical methods applied by the related right owner to protect his or her related rights;
• Distributing, importing for distribution, broadcasting, communicating to the public performances, fixed copies of performances or phonograms when knowing or having basis to know that the right management information in electronic format has been removed or altered without permission of the related right owner;
• Producing, assembling, transforming, distributing, importing, exporting, selling or renting an item of an equipment when knowing or having basis to know that such equipment is used for illegal decoding a satellite signal carrying encrypted program;
• Intentional recording or disseminating continuously of a satellite signal carrying encrypted program if the signal is decoded without permission of the lawful distributors.