What are the regulations on declaration procedures of product standards to the market? What are the registration procedures for a mark?

Main Content

• What are the regulations on self-declaration procedures of product standards to the market?
• What are goods labels?
• What are the procedures for registration of marks?

What are the regulations on self-declaration procedures of product standards to the market?

Procedures and documents for self-declaration of compliance with food safety regulations are specified in Article 5 of Decree 15/2018/ND-CP of Vietnam, Clause 1 Article 3 of Decree 155/2018/ND-CP of Vietnam, and Clause 2 Article 1 of Decree 155/2018/ND-CP of Vietnam:

- Self-declaration documents include:

+ The self-declaration form (Form No. 01 in Appendix I hereof);

+ Original copy or certified true copy of the food safety data sheet issued within 12 months before the self-declaration is made by an designated laboratory or a laboratory complying with ISO 17025; the data sheet must specify safety indicators prescribed by the Ministry of Health according to risk management principles under international regulations (or standards applied by the supplier if relevant regulations of the Ministry of Health are not available).

Declaration of product standards

- Self-declaration procedures:

+ Organizations or individuals shall announce the product declaration through mass media or post it on their websites or publicly post it up at their offices and make public through the food safety data system (if such system has not been established, organizations or individuals shall send 01 application by post or in person to the regulatory agency assigned by the People's Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities (hereinafter referred to as “receiving authority”), in order for it to retain the application documents and post the self-declaration, including names of organizations or individuals and product information, on its website. If the organizations or individuals have more than 02 facilities which manufacture the same product, they shall only submit the application at the regulatory agency in their locality where the manufacturing facility is selected by them. After selecting the regulatory agency for submitting the application, the next self-declared documents must be submitted at the previously selected agency).

+ Right after the self-declaration is submitted, the supplier is entitled to manufacture and sell the product and assume full responsibility for the safety of such product;

If the supplier has more than one factory that produces the same product, self-declaration documents shall be submitted to the regulatory authority of one of the provinces of the supplier’s choice. Once selected, self-declaration documents shall be submitted to the same authority.

- Self-declaration documents must be written in Vietnamese language; documents in other languages must be translated into Vietnamese language and notarized. The documents must be unexpired when the self-declaration is submitted.

- In case of change to the product name, origin or ingredients, the supplier shall submit another self-declaration. In case of other changes, the supplier shall submit a written notification to the receiving authority and is entitled to carry on the production or sale of the product afterwards.

What are goods labels?

Pursuant to Article 3 of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP of Vietnam: “Label means any manuscript, printed copy, drawing, photocopy of words, pictures, images that is stuck, printed, attached to, casted, or carved, a container of goods or on other kinds of materials to be attached to the goods or commercial container.”

According to that, enterprises write, print, draw, stick, etc. directly on goods without registration in any agencies. Labels of food must have main contents in Vietnamese as prescribed in Article 10 of Decree No. 43/2017/ND-CP of Vietnam on goods labels.

What are the procedures for registration of marks?

If you want to register for protection of the mark of your goods (for example, the mark of Vina Coffee) so that other entities are not allowed to use the same mark as yours, your company shall file an application at the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam to register for protection.

Application for registration of marks includes:

- A declaration of mark registration according to the form issued under Circular 01/2007/TT-BKHCN of Vietnam;

- A certified copy of the business registration certificate;

- Mark sample (picture or color printing): In addition to the mark sample affixed to the declaration, the application must contain 05 identical mark samples and must satisfy the following requirements:

- A mark sample must be clearly presented with the dimensions of each element in the mark not larger than 80mm and not smaller than 8mm, the overall mark must be presented in a mark template measuring 80mm x 80mm in size on the declaration;

- If a mark is a hologram, the mark sample must be accompanied by a photo or drawing showing the perspective image and may be accompanied by a description in the form of a slide;

- For a mark that requires protection of color, the mark sample must be presented in that exact color. If there is no claim for color protection, the mark sample must be presented in black and white format.

For other details of the mark registration application, please refer to Section 5 Chapter I of Circular 01/2007/TT-BKHCN of Vietnam.

The application is filed application at the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam.

The preparation of a mark application requires a lot of relevant information and drafting skills, so it takes someone with a lot of experience in mark registration to reduce errors. The search for marks registered by someone or not is also limited because the search information on the website of the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam is not fully updated. Especially, searching for groups of goods and services for mark registration (Searching according to the NiXo Agreement) is quite complicated and takes a lot of time. It takes a long time for the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam to process an application from the date of receipt of a valid application to the issuance of a protection title, it may take from 12 to 16 months in case your application is handled quickly, in practice it can take 2-3 years. Therefore, you can hire a unit specializing in intellectual property in general, mark registration in particular on your behalf to compose, submit, track and receive results for you. The cost is not too high for each mark.