Industrial Design
What is the industrial design?
Industrial design is the outside appearance of a product, expressed in shapes, lines, colours or a combination of these factors, used to distinguish goods from different organizations and individuals.
Legal services:
- Confirm the feasibility of the industrial design registration;
- Advise on the requirements of the industrial design images or photos;
- Describe the design to highlight what makes it unique;
- Register the industrial design in Vietnam and/or internationally;
- Advise on the transfer of the registered industrial design and draft all related documents (e.g. contract for the transfer of IP rights);
- Adjust the owner’s information on the protection titles or applications;
- Extend the validity of the industrial design protection titles;
- Represent clients to protest, complaint or cancel the validation of protection titles;
- Work with related agencies to request organizations or individuals to stop any IP rights infringement.
How to proceed?
- Contact us via phone, email or create a CRM account to define the required services with our lawyers.
- Whenever possible we will meet in person to define your legal strategy in depth.
- We will provide you with the list of required information and documents, as well as the application dossier drafted and translated by us in Vietnamese and English languages.
- Our legal services will notably include our advisory on the feasibility of the industrial design registration, on the images or photos, on the description of the industrial design; and on how to identify the groups of products/services to be registered and best protect your IP rights.
- During the registration process, we will assist you to liaise with the authorities and reply to their inquiries and refusal (if any).
- At any time, you can access the CRM system to manage and keep a track of your legal services.
The steps and procedures to register a trademark are as follows:
- Step 1: Submit the declaration dossier for registering the trademark at the “National Office of Intellectual Property” (“NOIP”).
- Step 2: Evaluation of the formality of the application.
- Step 3: Official announcement of the formality evaluation result.
- Step 4: Evaluation of the contents or substance of the application.
- Step 5: The NOIP issues the notice of intent to grant a trademark protection certificate and requests payment of the licensing fee (if have fulfilled the regulatory requirements).
- Step 6: The submitter pays the fee and the NOIP issues the trademark protection certificate.
In practice, 12 to 18 months are required to complete all the steps.
The Vietnamese intellectual property system is divided in three areas:
- Copyright and related rights administered by the Copyright Office of Vietnam;
- Industrial property rights – administered by the National Office of Intellectual Property (“NOIP”);
- Rights to plant varieties – administered by the Plant Variety Protection Office.
IP rights registered in Vietnam can be enforced as follows:
- Administrative action: Most of the IP disputes are settled through this method, which is fast and straightforward. The authorities may apply sanctions including warnings, fines, seizure or destruction of the counterfeit goods.
- Civil Court action: This process is lengthier, but the Court of Vietnam are enforcing IP regulations and protecting IP rights holders.
Industrial design is the appearance of a product expressed in shapes, lines, colors or a combination of these elements.
The following contents shall not be protected as industrial design:
- Appearance of a product that is required by its technical specification;
- Appearance of civil or industrial construction works;
- The appearance of a product if it is not visible during the use of the product.
A product is protected as industrial design if it satisfies the following conditions:
- Having the element of being new;
- Having the element of creativity;
- Being able to be applied in industry.
From the date of issuance, the industrial design patent shall be valid for five (05) years.
The patent for an industrial design may be renewed twice in a row, every five (05) years.
Applicants when registering for protection of industrial designs shall carry out the following steps:
- Step 1: Submit the application file
- Step 2: Formality examination
- Step 3: Substantive examination
- Step 4: Issuance of a license and announcement
According to the provisions of Vietnam’s intellectual property law, the time for processing an industrial design protection registration application is 8 months (applicable to formality examination and substantive examination). However, in case of complex applications, the processing time can last up to 24 months.
