Regulations on copyright in Vietnam

In Vietnam, the copyright is divided into moral rights and economic rights (Article 18 of the consolidated document 07/VBHN-VPQH in 2019 consolidating the Intellectual Property Law). This article will specify the regulations on copyright in Vietnam.

To ensure compliance with international commitments after joining new generation trade agreements including CPTPP, EVFTA and RCEP, Vietnam has revised and supplemented many regulations related to copyright and related rights in the 3rd amendment of the IP Law 2005, which has just been approved by the National Assembly on June 16, 2022, replaced the 2005 IP Law first amended in 2009 and amended the second time in 2019.

The 3rd amendment to the IP Law will be valid from January 1, 2023, except for the regulations on the sound trademark valid from January 14, 2022 and regulations on testing data for agricultural chemistry will be valid from January 14, 2024.

Copyright in Vietnam

Copyright includes the author’s moral rights and economic rights for the work they created or owned.

Moral rights

Moral rights include the rights:

• Name the work;
• Use real name or pseudonym on the work; be called by real name or pseudonym when the work is announced and used;
• Publish the work or allow others to publish the work;
• Protect the integrity of the work, not allow others to repair, trim or misrepresent the work by any means that harms the honour and reputation of the author.

The author who is not, simultaneously, the owner of the work (with a moral right but no economic rights) has moral rights for the work that he created, including: name the work; use real name or pseudonym on the work; protect the integrity of the work, allow or not allow others to amend the content of the work.

The owner of the work who is not, simultaneously, the author (with economic rights but does not have a moral right) has moral rights for the work including: Announce, disseminate or let others publish and disseminate their own works, except for the case between the author and the owner exists another agreement; allow or not allow others to use the work under their ownership, except for the case between the author and the owner exists another agreement.

Economic rights

Economic rights include the rights to:

• Create derivative works;
• Perform works in public;
• Copy works;
• Distribute, import original or copy of the work;
• Disseminate works to the public by wired or wireless means, websites or any other technical means;
• Lease the original or copy of cinematographic works, computer programs.

The author is, simultaneously, the owner of the work (with both moral rights and economic rights) has the right to the work including: Receive royalties; remuneration when the work is used; receive material benefits from allowing others to use the work in such forms: publication, reproduction, display, exhibition, performance, radio, television, sound recording, video recording, photography; translate, adaptation, modification, transformation, lease; receive an award for a work of which he or she is the author.

The author is not the owner of the work with economic rights to the work including the rights to: Receive royalties; remuneration when the work is used; receive an award for a work of which he or she is the author.

The owner of the work and is not the author has the right to receive material benefits from using the work in the forms of publication, reproduction, display, exhibition, performance, radio, television, sound recording, video recording, photography; translate, adaptation, modification, transformation, lease.

Regulations on copyright protection in Vietnam

Different from other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, inventions, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright in Vietnam does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected dated from the time the work is created in a certain form of material, regardless of content, quality, form, means, language, published or not, registered or not.

Accordingly, whether registered or not, the author’s copyright for the work will still be protected. However, the registration of the author’s right or copyright registration is still recommended because early registration will help the author/owner of the work get many advantages when the dispute occurs.

When acts of illegal use of the work occur worldwide, the owner of the work registering copyrights in advance will not have to spend too much time and complicate the problem of proving that he or she is the owner of the work.

Thereby, in order to avoid being passive, the owner of the work should register the copyright to protect his/her legitimate rights and benefits when there is infringement.

*** 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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