Industrial design registration in Vietnam

Every industrial design is a valuable creative result and an extremely important asset to every corporation. However, sometimes the owner skips the registration step to establish his ownership of this very valuable property, leading to the industrial design being copied by other organizations and individuals, cause damage to the owner. This article is intended to guide the procedure for industrial design registration in Vietnam.

Why register an industrial design in Vietnam?

– Register industrial designs to be recognized and protected by the State against other organizations and individuals. Accordingly, the owner of the industrial design after registration will have the exclusive right to exploit, use and prevent others from using that industrial design during the protection period.

– After being granted an industrial design patent, the industrial design owner can use it to contribute capital for business investment or transfer the right to use it to other subjects, bringing in revenue for the owner.

– Industrial design adds value to the product and increases the prestige of the business. The number of industrial design patents that an enterprise owns is one of the criteria for evaluating enterprises in the market.

Look up information on industrial designs

Why look up information on industrial designs?

– Avoid infringing upon the rights to protected industrial designs of other subjects.

– Assessment of the possibility of protection of an industrial design intended for registration.

– Objecting to granting protection titles to industrial designs that do not meet protection standards.

– Identifying and evaluating industrial designs to buy, sell, license or transfer technology, find partners for business cooperation.

– Identify development trends of industrial designs in the market, seek ideas for new industrial designs.

– Capturing industrial designs available on the market, avoiding unnecessary investment costs.

– Monitoring competitors’ creative activity

Tool to look up information on industrial design?

– Internet search tool.

– The Locarno Classification.

– Discs for lookup purposes.

– Industrial Property Gazette.

– Website: https://iplib.ipvietnam.gov.vn

– Website: https://wipopublish.ipvietnam.gov.vn

– Website: www.wipo.int/designdb/en/index.jsp

– Website: www.tmdn.org/tmdsview-web/welcome

Dossier for registration of industrial design in Vietnam

A dossier for industrial design registration includes the following documents:

– 02 Industrial design registration applications.

– 01 Description of the industrial design.

– 04 sets of industrial design photos or drawings.

– Proof of payment of registration fees.

– Power of attorney.

– Transfer of application right (if any).

– Documents confirming the right to register (if receive the right to register from someone else).

– Documents proving the right of priority (if the applicant has a claim for priority right)

– Each application is only required to grant one Industrial Design Patent.

– All documents in the registration dossier must be made in Vietnamese. For foreign language documents, they must be translated into Vietnamese.

– All documents in the registration dossier must be presented vertically (especially drawings, diagrams, tables can be presented horizontally) on one side of A4 size paper, with margins on all four sides, each margin is 20mm wide, Times New Roman font, minimum font size 13, except for supporting documents whose origin is not intended to be included in the application.

– For documents with many pages, each page must be numbered with Arabic numerals.

– The application may be accompanied by an electronic data carrier of part or all of the content of the application document.

Industrial design description under Vietnamese law

An industrial design description including the following contents:

Name of the industrial design which is the name of the product imbued with the industrial design, expressed in common words and phrases, not of the advertising nature, does not contain symbols, annotations and trade indications.

Field in which the industrial design is used, which is a specific field in which the product imbued with the industrial design is used, clearly stating the purposes, utility and functions of the product.

Clearly state an industrial design which is least different from the industrial design of the same product stated in the application and widely known before the date of submission or the date of priority (if the application contains a priority claim), indicating the information source disclosing the most similar industrial design.

List of photos or drawings, which enumerates photos, three-dimensional drawings, shadows, cross-sections, etc., of the industrial design one after another according to the ordinal numbers of those photos or drawings.

The industrial design description section include the following contents:

– It fully discloses the nature of the industrial design to be protected, adequately showing design features presenting the nature of the industrial design as well as new design features that are distinguishable from the most similar industrial design and consistent with those shown in the set of photos or drawings;

– Design features of the industrial design to be protected must be presented one after another in the following order: Configuration and line features, correlation between configuration and/or line features, color features (if any);

– For a product that have different usages (for example: a product that has a cover or is foldable, etc.), its industrial design must be described in different states;

– If an industrial design consists of multiple variations, the basic variation must be clearly indicated and other variations must be numbered. Distinguishable design features of each variation in comparison with those of the basic variation must be clearly indicated;

– If an industrial design is the design of a set of products, the design of each product in the set must be described.

Scope of protection (or claim for protection) of the industrial design must fully enumerate necessary and sufficient design features to identify the nature of the industrial design to be protected and the scope of industrial property rights to the industrial design, shown on photos or drawings stated in the application, and including new and distinctive design features in comparison with the known similar industrial designs.

Sets of photos or drawings of industrial designs under Vietnamese law

The applicant shall submit 04 sets of photos or 04 sets of drawings of an industrial design, presenting the object to be protected in a uniform and accurate manner and printed or attached to A4 paper without border. The sets of photos or drawings must fully present design features of the industrial design to be protected according to which any person with average knowledge in the corresponding art can identify that industrial design, and follow the following instructions:

– Photos or drawings must be clear and well defined; drawings must be presented with unbroken lines; the background of a photo or drawing must be monochrome and contrast with the industrial design; a photo or drawing must show only the product imbued with the industrial design to be protected (not accompanied with another product), must not contain indications of the technical drawing or indications providing explanation for industrial design, except for the indications that are short and necessary for showing the cross-section, magnified pictures, closed and open state.

– Photos or drawings must show the industrial design on the same scale. The size of the industrial design shown in photos or drawings must neither be smaller than 90 mm x 120 mm nor larger than 190 mm x 277 mm.

– Photos and drawings must show the industrial design viewed in the same direction and numbered in the following order: three-dimensional picture of the industrial design, front, rear, right-side, left- side, top-down and down-top shadows of the industrial design; shown shadows must be frontispieces.

– For the industrial design of an expandable product (for instance: box, package, etc.), shadows of the industrial design may be replaced with photos or drawings of the industrial design in an expanded state.

– Depending on the complexity of an industrial design, more photos or three-dimensional drawings from other angles, cross-sections or magnified pictures of parts, pictures of knocked down components of the product, photos or drawings illustrating the position for fitting or use of such part on the complete product may be required to clearly show the nature and design features of the industrial design (may not be used to establish the industrial property right to the industrial design of such part).

– For the industrial design of the product assembled or assembled from various parts, photos or drawings of these parts may be provided but provided for illustrative purposes and not for the purposes of establishing industrial property rights to the industrial design of such parts.

– Photos or drawings must show the industrial design in the same selected usages; photos or drawings showing other usages that may be provided to clarify the nature of the industrial design.

– For the application including multiple variations, the basic variation must be shown first. For each variation of the industrial design, there must be a set of photos or drawings fully presenting it.

– For a set of products, there must be three-dimensional pictures of the whole set and a set of photos or drawings of each product in the set.

How long does it take to register an industrial design in Vietnam

According to the Vietnamese law, an industrial design registration application goes through the following stages:

– Formal examination: 01 month

– Announcement of application: within 02 months from the date of issuance of decision on acceptance of valid application.

– Substantive examination: no more than 07 months from the date of application publication.

Validity of an Industrial Design Patent in Vietnam

An industrial design patent is valid from the date of grant to the end of 5 years from the date of filing the registration application. An industrial design owner may extend the validity of an industrial design patent up to two times, each time for five years by submitting a declaration requesting the extension of validity and paying the fee.

How to file an application for an industrial design in Vietnam

Applicants can submit a paper application or submit an online application through the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam ‘s Online Public Service Portal, specifically as follows:

The applicant may submit an industrial design registration application in person or by post to one of agencies of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam, as follows:

– Head Office of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam, address: 386 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi City.

– Representative office of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, address: 7th floor, Ha Phan building, number 17/19 Ton That Tung, Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

– Representative office of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam in Da Nang City, address: 3rd floor, 135 Minh Mang, Khue My Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District, Da Nang City

To file an online registration of industrial design application, the applicant needs a digital certificate and digital signature, registers an account on the Online Application Receipt System and has an account approved by the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam.

After registering an account on the Online Application Receiving System, the applicant shall declare and submit a industrial design registration application on the System. After that, the System will send back to the applicant the Online Confirmation Form.

Within 01 month from the date of submitting the online application, the applicant must go to one of offices of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam to present the Online Confirmation Form, attached documents and submit fees.

Industrial design registration service in Vietnam

Industrial design registration services include the following jobs:

– Counseling on legal provisions on industrial design protection and industrial design registration in Vietnam;

– Looking up the possibility of being granted a protection title of an industrial design;

– Guiding the preparation of drawings and photos of the industrial design;

– Drafting industrial design registration dossiers;

– Submiting industrial design registration dossiers at the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam;

– Pay fees for industrial design registration;

– Tracking application progress and inform customers;

– Preparing written responses to notices and complaints from the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam during the substantive examination of industrial design registration applications (if any);

– Paying fees for granting industrial design patents; – Delivering the industrial design patent to the customer.