Many enterprises invest a significant amount of time and
resources to improve their product design in order to match products to
specific customer groups. Industrial design means the outward appearance
of a product embodied in three dimensional configuration, lines, colours or a
combination of such elements [Clause 13 Article 4 Law on intellectual
property 2005 (IP law)] and industrial design is under industrial property rights
(Clause 2 Article 3 IP law).
There
are several important reasons for enterprises to protect their designs,
such as creating an appeal or attraction to customers, increasing the
commercial value of the company, a key factor in the company's marketing
strategy, creating an additional revenue for company either by collecting a fee
from licensing the design to others or by selling the rights of the registered
design.
Regarding conditions
for protection of industrial designs, general conditions comprise:
Novelty; Creativity; Being able of industrial application (Article 63 IP law).
Three conditions are stipulated clearly at Article 65,66,67 IP law. Objects
ineligible for protection as industrial designs are Outward appearance of a
product which is necessarily due to the technical features of the product;
Outward appearance of civil or industrial construction works; Shape of a
product which is invisible during the use of the product (Article 64 IP law).
Regarding procedures for
processing applications for registration of industrial designs (applications)
and for granting protection titles,
Firstly, documents needed
to prepare must meet the general requirements, uniformity and particular
requirements on applications (Article 100,101,103 IP law). In accordance with Article 107
IP law, authorization for carrying out procedures related to the establishment,
maintenance, extension, amendment, termination and invalidation of protection
titles must be made in writing in the form of a power of attorney (no valid
term shall be considered valid indefinitely, and validity shall be terminated
only when the principal declares termination of validity). Power of attorney’ s
contents are stipulated at Clause 2 Article 107 IP law.
Secondly,
the State administrative body for industrial property rights (body) receives
applications for registration of industrial property if the
application consists of at least the following documents and information: A
declaration for registration of industrial design; Description, a set of photos
and drawings and a description in the case of an application for registration of an industrial design;
Thirdly,
the body examines formal applications. Valid or invalid
applications shall be notified (Article 109 IP law).
Fourthly,
applications which have been accepted as being valid by the body shall be published in
the Official Gazette of Industrial Property in accordance with the provisions
of Article 110 IP law. Applications shall be published within two months as
from the date such application is accepted as being valid.
Fifthly, third
party’s opinions on the grant of protection titles (Article 112 IP
law).
Sixthly, examining
substantive applications (Article 114 IP law).
Seventhly, an applicant shall have the following rights of
amendment, supplementation, division and conversion application before the body for industrial property rights
notifies a refusal or decides to grant a protection title (Article 115, 116 IP
law).
Finally,
the body shall decide to refuse or to grant a protection title
and enter it in the National Register of Industrial Property (Article 118 IP
law).
About time-limit for
processing applications, an application shall have its form examined within one
month from the filing date, substantively examined within six (6) months from
the date of publication of the application. The time-limit for re-examination
of an application shall be equal to two-thirds of the time-limit for the
initial examination, and may, in complicated cases, be extended but must not
exceed the time-limit for the initial examination. The duration for amendment
or supplementation of applications shall not be included in the time- limits
specified in clauses 1, 2 and 3 of Article 119 IP law.
If you are looking for an IP attorney, but are concerned
about the typical costs associated with the traditional legal search, you
should visit ANT Lawyers where we work to trim those costs. We will match you
with an experienced IP attorney in Vietnam for a
free, no obligation consultation. Hope this helps.
