What Are Condition, Procedures and Period of Vietnam Patent Registration?

Before applying Vietnam patent registration, applicant needs to find out the matters related to conditions, procedures and period from the time of submission the application until granting the protection title when registering a patent to avoid the cases that National Office of Intellectual Property in Vietnam (NOIP) may issue the notification on denying examination due to not meeting criteria or non-compatible dossiers.

What are criteria a patent needs to be protected?

According to Law on Intellectual Property in Vietnam, a patent needs to satisfy 03 following criteria to be protected:

-An invention shall be deemed novel if it has not yet been publicly disclosed by use or by means of a written description or any other form either inside or outside Vietnam before the filing date or the priority date, as applicable, of the invention registration application.

-An invention shall be deemed not yet publicly disclosed if it is known to only a limited number of persons who are obliged to keep it secret.

-An invention shall not be deemed to have lost its novelty if it is published in the following cases, provided that the invention registration application is filed within six (6) months from the date of publication:

• It is published by another person without permission from the person having the right to register it;
• It is published in the form of a scientific presentation by the person having the right to register it;
• It is displayed at a national exhibition of Vietnam or at an official or officially recognized international exhibition by the person having the right to register it.

-An invention shall be deemed to be of an inventive nature if, based on technical solutions already publicly disclosed by use or by means of a written description or any other form either inside or outside Vietnam prior to the filing date or the priority date as applicable of the application for registration of the invention, the invention constitutes inventive progress and cannot be easily created by a person with average knowledge in the art;

-An invention shall be deemed to be susceptible of industrial application if it is possible to realize mass manufacture or production of products or repeated application of the process which is the subject matter of the invention, and to achieve stable results.

Phases of examination of Vietnam patent registration

For Vietnam patent registration, after the application was filing, it will go through 02 phases of examination:

-The application will be examined formality from 1-3 months. If the application meets the formality criteria according to the law, NOIP will issue the decision on accepting the formality of the application. Then, it will be published on Industrial Property Official Gazette within 02 months from the date of issuing the above decision.

-Then, when having the request, the application will go through a substantial examination within 12-16 months. If meeting the protection criteria as mentioned above, NOIP will issue the Patent to applicant.

However, the actual examining period will be shorter or longer than as regulated.

Vietnam patent registration required documents

In case of authorizing ANT Lawyers as IP agent in Vietnam, the client needs to provide the following documents:

-Name and address of the applicant;

-Name and address of inventor(s);

–POA to ANT Lawyers;

-Specification, Figures and Claims of the patent;

-Priority documents (if any);

-Other related documents.

How patent agent in Vietnam could help with Vietnam patent registration?

ANT Lawyers, a patent agent in Vietnam could help clients with Vietnam patent registration efficiently so as the inventor could save time to focus on their core business while doing business in Vietnam. 

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