Mark means any sign used to distinguish goods or services of different organizations or individuals and is one of the industrial property objects protected by law, but depending on the law in each country, a mark needs to be registered to become a legally protected mark.
Article table of contents
Unlike copyright, which is protected automatically, from the time of creation of a work, the author is legally protected without any registration procedure, for industrial property rights as marks, the protection is established based on decisions of competent state agencies through consideration and granting of protection titles to the owners of that mark. Thus, for copyright, registration for protection is encouraged, but for marks, registration for protection is a mandatory procedure.
1. Subjects of marks registration
Subjects of marks registration according to Article 87 of the Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam include:
- Organizations and individuals shall have the right to register marks to be used for goods such organizations or individuals produce or for services such organizations or individuals provide.
- Any organization or individual lawfully engaged in commercial activities shall have the right to register a mark for a product which the latter puts onto the market but which was manufactured by others, provided that the manufacturer does not use such mark for a product and does not object to such registration.
- Lawfully established collective organizations shall have the right to register collective marks to be used by the members of the collective organization pursuant to the regulations of the collective organization on use of collective marks. For signs indicating geographical origins of goods or services, an organization with the right to register means a local collective organization of [other] organizations or individuals engaged in production or trading in the relevant locality.
- Organizations with the function of controlling and certifying quality, properties, origin or other relevant criteria of goods or services shall have the right to register certification marks, provided that such organizations are not engaged in production or trading of such goods or services.
2. Applications for marks registration of goods
According to Clause 1 Article 108 of the Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam, applications for marks registration of goods include:
- Two written declarations made according to form 04-NH stipulated in Appendix A of Circular No. 01/2007/TT-BKHCN;
The section of mark description: mark specimens must be described to clarify the constituent elements of the mark and the overall meaning of the mark, if any; if the mark contains configuration elements, contents and significance of those elements must be clearly defined; if the mark contains letters, words or expressions in languages other than Vietnamese, their pronunciations (transliterated into Vietnamese) must be clearly annotated and their meanings (if any) must be translated into Vietnamese; if the mark contains numerals other than Arabic and Roman numerals, those numerals must be transliterated into Arabic numerals. The section List of goods and services bearing the mark in the written declaration must be divided into groups in accordance with the International Classification of Goods and Services under the Nice Agreement published by the NOIP in the Industrial Property Official Gazette.
- 09 enclosed identical mark specimens:
The enclosed mark specimens must be identical to the one affixed on the registration application form, both in size and color. A mark specimen must be clearly presented with the dimensions of each element of the mark ranging between 8 mm and 80 mm, and the entire mark must be presented within a mark model of 80 mm x 80 mm in size in the written declaration. For a mark involving a claim for protection of colors, the mark specimen must be presented with the very colors sought to be protected.
- Receipt for payment of filing fee.
3. Applications processing time limit
According to Article 119 of the Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam, from the date of receipt by the NOIP, the mark registration application shall be considered in the following order:
- Application’s form shall be examined within one month from the filing date.
- Publication: within 02 months from the date the mark registration application has a decision on acceptance of the valid application.
- Substantive examination: no more than 09 months from the publication.
4. Mark registration fees and charges
- Fee for application: VND 150.000;
- Charge for publication: VND 120.000;
- Charge for search for substantive examination: VND 180.000/group of products and services;
- Charge for search for the 7th product or service onwards: VND 30.000/product or service;
- Fee for substantive examination: VND 550.000/group of products and services;
- Charge for search for substantive examination of the 7th product or service onwards: VND 120.000/product or service.
Duc Thao
- Key word:
- Law on Intellectual Property
