Common stages of trademark registration in Vietnam
The normal trademark registration process in Vietnam will be divided into several stages, including:
Formal appraisal stage
After receiving the application, the experts at the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam will conduct a formal examination to check whether the trademark application is legally valid or not.
If valid, the NOIP will make a decision to accept the form of the submitted trademark application.
The time limit for giving feedback during this period is 1 month according to the provisions of the Intellectual Property Law for industrial property registration applications (Article 119 of the consolidated document 07/VBHN-VPQH 2019 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005).
Application publication and objection period
Upon receipt of the decision to accept the form of a trademark registration application, within 2 months, the application will be published in the Official Gazette in the Industrial Property Official Gazette.
Once published in the Official Gazette, until the application enters the substantive examination stage, any third party can file an objection to the trademark application. Specifically, the opposing party has the right to send a written request to the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam not to grant a certificate of trademark registration to the application being published in the Official Gazette, clearly stating specific reasons for the NOIP to review and make a final decision.
Content appraisal stage
If there is no objection or the objection ends with the outcome in favor of the applicant, within 9 months of publication, the application will enter the substantive examination stage. During this phase, experts will assess the mark for the conditions of protection, along with comparisons with previously filed pending and valid registered trademarks in order to check the possibility of registration of the application.
In case the application satisfies all conditions, the Department shall issue a notice of grant of a protection title.
Granting of certificate stage
At the end of the substantive examination, the NOIP will notify the applicant and the applicant’s industrial property representative of the granting of the trademark certificate through the Notice of grant of the certificate, together with the notice of paying the registration fee.
The applicant will pay the fee for the Grant of a trademark certificate and receive a certificate of trademark registration valid for 10 years and can be renewed many times, each time for 10 years.
Trademark search before filing
Searching for the possibility of trademark registration in advance is not required, however, before officially entering the above 4 stages of trademark registration examination, it is best for the applicant to do a search to get an understanding of the possibility of granting trademark protection certificate.
This is to avoid the case that after 12-14 months of examination, the applicant receives a result of refusal to register because there are already identical trademarks, potentially confusing the consumers on the market.
The search process only takes 3-5 days. For the preliminary trademark search, most law firms provide a completely free search service. For an in-depth search, the applicant will have to pay an amount of fee to know the possibility of successful trademark registration.
*** 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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