VIETNAM Law and Practice Contributed by: Ngoc Luong Trinh, Tung Nguyen, Hanh Vo, Esko Cate, Nguyen Dang, Khanh Le, Hoang Nguyen and Truc Ta, VILAF
Certain anti-competitive agreements are prohibited per se, irrespective of market share or actual anti- competitive effects. These include, amongst others: • bid rigging; • agreements on preventing or impeding other enterprises from participating in or developing the market; • agreements on excluding other enterprises from the market; price fixing agreements (whether directly or indirectly); • agreements on sharing customers, markets or sources of supply; and • agreements on restraining or controlling output or input. Other restrictive agreements are prohibited where they cause or are capable of causing a significant compe - tition-restraining effect in the relevant market. These include, amongst others, agreements to restrain technical or technological development or invest - ment; agreements imposing conditions for contract execution or requiring other enterprises or customers to accept obligations unrelated to the subject matter of the contract; agreements not to transact with other enterprises; and agreements restricting the market for the sale or purchase of goods or services of other enterprises. 6.4 Abuse of Dominant Position Under the Competition Law, an enterprise is deemed to hold a dominant market position if it has a market share of 30% or more in the relevant market or pos - sesses significant market power. A group of enter - prises may also be considered collectively dominant if they act together and hold a combined market share of 50% or more (for two enterprises), 65% or more (for three enterprises), 75% or more (for four enterprises) or 85% or more (for five enterprises), provided that no individual enterprise within the group has a market share of less than 10%. Enterprises holding a dominant market position are generally prohibited from engaging in conduct that has the effect or is capable of having the effect of restricting competition. Prohibited conduct includes, among others, selling below the prime costs which lead to or may lead to eliminating competitors, impos -
ing unreasonable purchase or sale prices or fixing minimum resale prices, causing or possibly causing damages to customers, restricting production, limiting the market or obstructing technical or technological development, causing or possibly causing damages to customers; applying discriminating commercial conditions to similar transactions in ways which impede or may impede other enterprises participating or expanding the market; imposing on other enterpris - es conditions for signing contracts or request other enterprises or customers to accept irrelevant obliga - tions to exclude/hinder such enterprises from partici - pating in or expanding the market; and obstructing the participation or expansion of other businesses in the market. Vietnam protects inventions through invention patents and utility solution patents. An invention is a techni - cal solution, in the form of a product or process, that solves a specific problem by applying laws of nature. An invention patent is available where the invention is novel, involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable. A utility solution patent is available where the invention is novel, industrially applicable and not common knowledge, even if the inventive threshold is lower. 7. Intellectual Property 7.1 Patents Patent protection is obtained through registration with the Vietnamese industrial property authority or through recognition of an international application under an applicable treaty. Foreign applicants without a perma - nent residence or business establishment in Vietnam must file through a lawful representative in Vietnam. Applications may be filed in paper or electronic form and must generally be made in Vietnamese. A patent application normally includes a description, claims and abstract. A formally valid patent application is published in the nineteenth month from the filing date or priority date, unless early publication is requested. A request for substantive examination must be filed within 36 months from the filing date or priority date. If no request is filed, the application is deemed with - drawn.
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