International Trademark Registration Under Madrid Protocol/ Agreement

Trademark is the asset of individuals, and organizations which is protected independently in each nation therefore a trademark being registered in a country would still be a subject of violation in another country because it is not yet registered.

 

Trademark in Vietnam

Currently based on a trademark patent or a national trademark application, by filing an international application, the trademark owner shall acquire the right of trademark registration in some or all members of the Madrid system.

With highly professional staff and great experience in intellectual property practice in Vietnam, ANT Lawyers would support the in registering your trademark under Madrid Protocol/ Agreement (Madrid System)

Conditions of international registration under Madrid System

People who have been granted the Certificate of Trademark Registration in Vietnam have the right to register their respective international trademarks under the Madrid Agreement;

People who have already filed an application for registration of a trademark in Vietnam and who have been granted a certificate of registration of a trademark in Vietnam shall have the right to make an international registration of the mark corresponding to the Madrid Protocol.

International registration application originating from Vietnam

An application for international registration of a mark designating a contracting party to the Madrid Agreement as a country to be registered and not designating any country member of the Madrid Protocol must be made in French.

An application for international registration of marks designating at least one member country of the Madrid Protocol, including the designation of a country party to the Madrid Agreement, must be made in English or French.

The declaration shall be as form provided by Vietnamese competent Authorities. The declaration shall designate the countries being parties of the Madrid Agreement (may simultaneously be a Member of the Madrid Protocol) and the country member of the Madrid Protocol to which the applicant wishes to apply for trademark protection.

The applicant shall ensure all information is accurate and in accordance with information in attached document.

International registration office for application from Vietnam

International application shall be filled at International Bureau through National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam

The date the National Office of Intellectual Property receives the application for international trademark registration shall be the date of the filing if the International Bureau receives the application within two months from the date of receipt. If the application is not completed for submission to the International Bureau within the above time limit, the date of receipt shall be the date of filing the application to the International Bureau.

If you are looking for an experienced IP services in Vietnam to help you with your IP application, you should visit ANTLawyers.vn. Our attorneys have experience with the IP process and will work closely with you as you apply for your IP. We routinely match inventors with experienced IP attorneys for a free consultation on our platform and offer a money back guarantee.

 

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Should IP holders handle with the infringement through litigation?

Effectiveness of a Lawsuit against Infringement of IP in Vietnam

How to handle effectively with infringement is a big concern of Intellectual Property (IP) holders. Should the IP holder file a lawsuit at Court? Is this way effective in Vietnam?  This article will give you general information about handling of intellectual property disputes through legal action at court in Vietnam.

 

 IP Enforcement Law Firm in Vietnam

Unlike many countries in the world, in case of infringement, most IP holders proceed with lawsuits in the courts (judicial authorities), while other administrative agencies only perform measures to ensure enforcement of judgments of the court.

Protection of IP rights through the litigation has many advantages over administrative measures because it guarantees the enforcement and compensation from infringers. However, in our opinions, the practice of resolving IP rights disputes in courts is not as effective as administrative measures in Vietnam.

Vietnamese laws have not given separate regulations on procedures for settling IP disputes. Therefore, the procedures for settling disputes shall be governed by the Law on Civil procedure. According to Clause 2 of Article 30 and Clause 1 of Article 34 of this law, disputes over intellectual property rights and technology transfer between individuals and organizations and all purposes of profit are commercial disputes to be trialed at the courts of the province.

According to Article 202 of the IP Law, the court could decide the following civil measures to the infringers upon IP right:

-Compelling termination of the infringement of intellectual property rights;

-Compelling public rectification and apology;

-Compelling the performance of civil obligations;

-Compelling compensation for damages;

-Compelling destruction, or distribution/ use for non-commercial purpose.

In addition, when initiating a lawsuit or during dispute at court, the IP holders may request the court to apply provisional emergency measures in order to prevent damages.

In practice, the IP holder does not proactively protect IP rights by civil measures to file a lawsuit at court. The number of cases resolved by courts is much lower than the number of cases handled by administrative measures. Specifically, the number of cases resolved by court are 177 cases from 2012 to 2015, of which 91 cases were canceled. The number of cases resolved by administrative measure is of 22,914 cases (excluding cases handled by Vietnam Customs Authority)

The reason for the above survey is that, the IP holder is less likely to resolve disputes through courts because time for dispute resolution is lengthy, the process is cumbersome and complicated, but not as effective as administrative measures. Therefore, dealing with disputes in the specialized administrations will give faster effects to the IP holders in Vietnam.

If you are looking for an experienced IP services in Vietnam to help you with your IP application, you should visit ANTLawyers.vn. Our attorneys have experience with the IP process and will work closely with you as you apply for your IP.

 

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How to Dealing with Trademark Infringement in Vietnam

According to Vietnam law on intellectual property, when detecting the trademark infringement act, the trademark owner has the self-protection right includes (i) apply technological measures to prevent acts of trademark infringement (ii) request organization or individual who commits an act of trademark infringement of the holder to terminate such act, make a public apology or rectification, and compensate damages; (iii) request the competent authority to handle with acts of trademark infringement in accordance with the provisions of laws.

 

Trademark Infringement in Vietnam

Firstly, to apply the technological measures to prevent acts of trademark infringement measure, infringed party may give our the information related to original of emergence, trademark certificate, protection and duration scope and other information related to the right of trademark owner in order to inform that the infringed trademark are under protection warn the infringing party not to infringe. Besides, the owner of infringed trademark may use the technical means or measures to mark, identify, distinguish and protect the infringed trademark.

Secondly, the owner could also request organization or individual who commits an act of trademark infringement of the holder to terminate such act, make a public apology or rectification, and compensate damages. In particular, the trademark owners may themselves or authorize to individual or organization, IP attorney in Vietnam to send to the infringed party to stop the the infringement by indicating the information regarding origin of infringement, trademark certificate, protection scope, protection duration and set a reasonable period of time for the infringer to terminate the act of infringement. In addition, depending on the case and level of infringement, the written request will bear different content. It can be said that this is a prior-should-use measure before taking other measures including application of technological measures. If the violating party cooperates and stops the infringement, it will save time and money of both parties when not taking other stronger measures.

Thirdly, owner of trademark could request the competent authority to deal with acts of trademark infringement in accordance with the provisions of laws. When the trademark owner sends the request as mentioned above to infringing party, and, the violated party does not cooperate and continue the infringement, infringed party may sent a request to competent authority with the information such as: date of making the request; name and address of infringed party or their legal representative; name of receiving request authority; name and address of infringing party; name and address of the suspected violator in the case of request for temporary cessation of customs clearance for exports or imports suspected of infringement; brief information of infringed trademark and infringement; proposed measures to handle infringement; documents and evidence accompanying the request. Depending on the seriousness of the infringement, the petitioner may submit a request to the relevant authorities to apply administrative, civil, criminal or customs measures. Be noted that if the request is sent to custom authority for temporary cessation of customs clearance for imports or exports suspected of infringement, it is required to provide the additional information on the mode of import or export, country of exportation, mode of packaging, the lawful importer or exporter, features of lawfully imported or exported goods for distinction from infringing goods.

Overall, it is important to protect the intellectual property rights. Further, engaging with IP attorney in Vietnam will help the process efficiently from registration, managing the intellectual properties, protecting the intellectual property from infringement, and handling the disputes against the IP violators in Vietnam through administrative measures, civil litigation or even criminal prosecution.

ANT Lawyers is a law firm in Vietnam located in the business centers of Hanoi, Danang, Ho Chi Minh city. We provide convenient access to our clients. Please contact our lawyers in Vietnam for advice via email ant@antlawyers.vn or call our office at +84 28 730 86 529.

 

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Industrial Design in Vietnam

How to Register Industrial Design in Vietnam?

Industrial design is the appearance of the product which is expressed through shapes, lines, colors or combinations of these factors.

 

Industrial design in Vietnam

A product as being commercially marketed will have a certain style with a combination of certain shapes, lines, colors, etc…which is the design of the product. When a new design to be launched, if it attracts customers, there is a big chance there will be fake or imitated products. Therefore, before a new design is launched, business owners need to conduct registration procedures for protection of industrial designs. That is the action for the protection of its product design and the prestige of the enterprise in the market.  This protection will prevent the infringement of the design, therefore the registration of industrial design protection is essential.

ANT Lawyers IP services in Vietnam in the field of industrial design registration advice covers:

-Look-up, assess and consult possibilities to register industrial design in Vietnam and abroad;

-Represent clients in applying for certificates of industrial design, record modification, extend degree of industrial protection in Vietnam and abroad;

-Evaluate the effectiveness of the certificate of industrial design registration and the possibility of industrial design rights violation;

-Implement of the protected industrial design rights: investigate, monitor, negotiate, seek arbitration or initiate a lawsuit or request other competent agencies for handling of infringement in Vietnam and abroad;

-Negotiate, draft, evaluate and register the of changing industrial design ownership in Vietnam and abroad;

-Advise on building strategies, brand development; For advice and specific details in each case, please contact us directly for advice.

If you are looking for an experienced IP attorney in Vietnam to help you with your IP application, you should visit ANTLawyers.vn. Our attorneys have experience with the IP process and will work closely with you as you apply for your IP.

 

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Notice of operation of the National Office of Intellectual Property

Due to the recently complicated situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, especially the appearance of new clusters unidentified infections in residential areas, offices, and enterprises, and to implement guidance of the Prime Minister, National Steering Committee for prevention and control, and Ministry of Science and Technology, and the guidance of the emergency dispatch no. 11/CD-UBND dated May 24^th 2021 of Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee on strengthening of measures to prevent and control Covid-19, to contribute to the protection of public health, The National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) would like to announce

 

How to protect intellectual property rights in Vietnam?

-From May 27^th 2021, NOIP will stop receiving and releasing results of application for industrial property (IP) at NOIP (no. 386 of Nguyen Trai street, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi). IP application and dispatches, documents submitted to NOIP office only received through online form or post.

-NOIP also stops consulting at NOIP office (386 of Nguyen Trai street, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi). Accordingly, consulting activities on IP in general and procedure for IP application in particular, only are implemented through telephone or email.

-The receipt of application and consulting activities at Representative office of NOIP at Ho Chi Minh city and Da Nang will still go on as usual.

If you're looking for an affordable IP attorneys in Vietnam, check out ANT Lawyers.vn was established to meet these needs by providing fast, effective and economical solutions. Hope that clears things up a bit. Feel free to message me directly to chat further about any other IP questions that you face. 

 

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