Patent

There is a 6 month grace period for annuity/renewal payments. Failing to pay the fees within the period will result in revocation of the patent.

No. Pursuant to Circular No. 16/2016/TT-BKHCN from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Vietnam, late entry into the PCT National Phase in Vietnam within 6 months of the 31-month deadline is presently not allowed for applications having said deadline on or after 15 January 2018.

Further, the Vietnamese translation of the specification must be submitted at the time of national phase entry in Vietnam. As such, filing instructions by Applicants to their agents should be provided well before the 31-month deadline in order to allow ample time for preparation of the Vietnamese translation of the specification.

 

Effective 15 January 2018, pursuant to Circular No. 16/2016/TT-BKHCN from the Ministry of Science and Technology, please be noted that the original Power of Attorney must be submitted within 1 month of the filing date.

Yes. The substantive examination request can be filed at a maximum of six months after the due date.

There will be no extension fee incurred for the late filing.

Yes. The applicant may amend claims at entry when filing a patent application in Vietnam.

Yes. Unlike regular patent applications, utility/petty patent applications will be granted with a protection period of 10 years from filing date, if they meet the criteria of novelty and industrial applicability.

However, we normally advise clients to firstly file a regular patent application and convert to a utility patent application subsequently, if the application is unable to meet the inventive step requirement. The cost and procedure to file a utility patent application is the same as that of a regular patent application.

Trademark

An Applicant is allowed to register a mark that includes a third party’s likeness or picture as long as the Applicant can provide proof of consent provided by the third party.

See our page on Vietnam’s trademark system for more information.

The original Power of Attorney can be submitted within one month of the filing date of the application, however it is advisable that all documents be submitted at the time the application is filed to ensure faster processing times.

Any characters not of Latin origin, e.g. Japanese characters, shall be deemed to be non-distinctive and would therefore not be eligible for registration unless the said mark has acquired distinctiveness by virtue of prolonged use before the date of application or if the mark includes other distinctive elements.

The Power of Attorney requires no notarisation or legalisation and can be simply signed by the Applicant.

 

There is no particular deadline to oppose an application. An application can be opposed at any time after the application has been published an as long as the mark is still under substantive examination.

As a rough guide, an application can be opposed within 6-8 months from the date of publication until the time the Examiner completes the substantive examination of the application.