VIETNAM

New Adoption of Amended Intellectual Property Law

On 19 June 2009, Vietnam Parliament adopted the Law No. 36/2009/QH12 on amendment of some provisions of the existing 2005 Intellectual Property Law (the "Amended IP Law"), which shall become effective as of 1 January 2010.

The Amended IP Law provides important amendments on considerable provisions of the existing 2005 Intellectual Property Law, covering procedures and conditions for protection of copyright, patent, trademark, designs, etc. The followings are summary of new changes:

1. Rights to register trademarks (Amended Section 87 of IP Law):

If a trademark is registered or protected in a member country to an international treaty which prohibit representative or agent of owner of such trademark from registering such trademark, and if Vietnam is also member to such international treaty, such representative or agent of owner of such trademark shall not be entitled to register such trademark in Vietnam without permission from the owner of such trademark, except the representative or agent of owner of such trademark presents justifiable reasons.

2. Doctrine of "first to file" doctrine (Amended Section 90 of IP Law):

• In case of several applications for (a) patents for inventions which are identical with or similar to each others; or (b) patents for several industrial designs which are identical or not significantly differed with each other, patent shall only be granted to any invention or 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.
• In case of several applications filed by different applicants for registration of trademarks which are identical with or confusingly similar to each other for goods/services which are identical with or confusingly similar with each others, or in case of several applications filed by one applicant for registration of trademarks which are identical with each others for the same goods/services, Certificate of Registration would only be granted to any trademark filed under legitimate application having the earliest priority date or the earliest filing date among those which satisfies conditions for granting of Certificate of Registration. If all of those applications satisfy conditions for granting of Certificate of Registration and all have the same earliest priority date or earliest filing date, Certificate of Registration would only be granted to one trademark that is agreed by all applicants. If no agreement is reached, all applications shall be refused.

3. Duration of examination of applications (Amended Section 119 of IP Law):

• Duration of Formality Examination: All applications for registration of industrial property objects shall be formality examined within one month from their respective filing date.
• Duration of Substantive Examination:

- of an invention application, not exceeding 18 months, from its publication date  of application if request for substantial examination is filed prior to the publication date, or from the filing date of request for substantial examination if such request for substantial examination is filed after the publication date of application.
- of a trademark application, not exceeding 9 months, from the publication date of application.
- of an industrial design application, not exceeding 7 months, from the publication date of application.
- of a geographic indication, not exceeding 6 months, from the publication date of application.

• Duration of Re-Examination: Duration of re-examination of an industrial property application shall be equal to two third (2/3) of the duration of examination of such industrial property application, but in any case the duration of re-examination shall not exceed the total time of the duration of examination of such industrial property application.

Some Statistics

Total Patent Applications Filed in Vietnam by Year

Comparison of total Foreign and Vietnamese Patent Applications
Filed in Vietnam by Year

Total Trademark Applications Filed in Vietnam by Year

Comparison of Total Foreign and Vietnamese Trademark Applications
Filed in Vietnam by Year

Total Industrial Design Applications Filed in Vietnam by Year

Comparison of Total Foreign and Vietnamese Design Applications
Filed in Vietnam by Year

Trademark Applications Filed in Vietnam by Top Ten Countries
Year 2008

Patent Applications Filed in Vietnam by Top Ten Countries
Year 2008

LAO PDR

1. Legislations

• The 2007 Intellectual Property Law was adopted by the National Assembly of The Lao People's Democratic Republic on 24 December 2007, and became effective as of 14 April 2008 under Decree No. 06/CP by the President of The Lao People's Democratic Republic on promulgation of the Intellectual Property Law.
• The Regulation on Registration of Trademarks, promulgated by the Prime Minister's Office on 7 March 2002 under No. 466/STEA-PMO.
• Decree of the Prime Minister on Patents, Industrial Designs and Utility Models, January 2002; Implementing Regulations of the Decree on Patents, Industrial Designs and Utility Models, February 2003.
• Decree of the Prime Minister on Trademarks, January 1995.

2. Membership to International Bodies

• WIPO Convention, since January 1995.
• Paris Convention (Industrial Property), October 1998.
• PCT (Patent), June 2006.
• WTO: Observer.

Some Statistics

Total Patent Applications by Year

Difference between Foreign and Lao Patent Applications by Year

We could not obtain data on patent applications by foreign and Lao applicants for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Total Design Applications by Year

Difference between Foreign and Lao Design Applications by Year

We could not obtain data on design applications by foreign and Lao applicants for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA

1. Legislations

The following intellectual property laws were adopted and are currently effective in Cambodia:

• Law on Patents, Utility Model Certificates and Industrial Designs, in force since January 2003;

• Law Concerning Marks, Collective Marks, Trade Names and Acts of Unfair Competition, in force since February 2002;
• Law on Copyright and Related Rights, in force since March 2005;

2. Membership of International Bodies

• WIPO Convention, since July 1995.
• Paris Convention (Industrial Property), since September 1998.
• WTO: Member and Signatory to TRIPS Agreement, since September 2003.
• Member of ASEAN since April 1999.

Some Statistics

Total Trademark Applications by Year

Differences between Trademark Applications and Registrations

Disclaim: This material is to keep our client updated with general information on IP registrations and transactions in Vietnam only, and is not intended to provide a legal advice or as a business promotion document.