Changes to industrial design in the new Vietnam IP Law
The new Vietnam IP Law has many important changes. One of those was about the regulations on industrial design – one of the type of Intellectual Property asset in Vietnam. In this article, we will brief about the changes to industrial design in the new Vietnam IP Law.
Automatic registration of industrial designs
According to the new Vietnam IP Law, every organizations that that are assigned to manage scientific and technological tasks using State budget will have the right to register such industrial designs automatically and without reimbursement, except for the case of industrial design in the field of national defense and security.
The right to register an industrial design in the field of national defense and security belongs to the State if it is entirely created with funds from the State budget. On the circumstance that an industrial design is partially funded by the State budget, the right to register that industrial design is proportional to the proportion of the State budget allocated to the process of creating the industrial design.
When it is determined that an industrial design belongs to the State, the design application may be filed through the state owner’s representative, who may be one of three subjects:
- Committee for Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC);
- Ministries or ministerial-level agencies, People’s Committees of provinces and centrally run cities;
- State Capital and Investment Corporation (SCIC).
2 Ways for Opposition of Industrial Design Applications
In addition to the traditional written opinion, the new Vietnam IP Law adds for the first time a new mechanism allowing a third party to oppose an industrial design application. While the current third party’s written opinion would only serve as a reference source for examining a design application, the new mechanism that is currently being worked on by legislators appear to be allowing the third party to oppose an industrial design application as a separate new opposition procedure (not a reference source for the processing of a design application).
The new mechanism’s time frame is different to the written opinion in which it allows any third party to file an opposition to an industrial design application only within 4 months of the design application’s publication date.
Legal grounds for the opposition of the industrial design application
A written objection to the grant of an industrial design may invoke and prove one of the five legal grounds listed below:
- The subject matter sought for registration does not fully meet the patentability criteria.
- The applicant does not have the right to register an industrial design.
- The subject matter sought for a design patent, despite fully meeting the criteria for patentability, is not a design application with the earliest priority date or filing date.
- More than one applicant has filed more than one identical or significantly different design application on the same day, and those applicants have not yet agreed to withdraw one of those filed applications.
- The amended or supplemented design application broadens the scope of the disclosed subject matter described in the application or changes the nature of the subject matter seeking registration stated in the application.
Legal grounds for cancellation of an industrial design protection title
An industrial design protection title may be cancelled entirely or partially by any third party if one of the three grounds listed below is discovered:
- The applicant has never had or been assigned the right to register an industrial design.
- The design application does not meet the protection criteria of novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability; or the design application is deemed to be contrary to social morality and public policy.
- The revised or supplemented industrial design application broadens the scope of the disclosed subject matter described in the application or changes the nature of the subject matter seeking registration stated in the application.
*** Other Articles***
– You could visit here to see the Trademark Registration in Vietnam.
– You can also check the Vietnam Trademark Law: Detailed Guide And Legal Notes.
– You could check Questions of filing trademark in Vietnam: POA, Trademark requirement and trademark fee in Vietnam.
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