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
business establishment in Vietnam must file through a lawful representative in Vietnam. A formally valid application is published within one month after formal acceptance, although publication may be deferred at the applicant’s request, but not beyond seven months from the filing date. Third parties may oppose the grant within three months of publication. Substantive examination is generally completed within five months of publication. An Industrial Design Patent is valid for five years from the filing date and may be renewed twice for further five-year terms. The maximum term is therefore 15 years from the filing date. The owner has the right to use, license, prevent others from using and dispose of the protected design. Use includes manufacturing products bearing the protected design, circulating, advertising, offering for sale or stocking those prod - ucts and importing them. Infringement includes unauthorised use of the pro - tected design or a design not significantly different from it during the term of protection. Remedies follow the general IP enforcement framework, including civil claims, administrative handling, provisional measures and customs measures. 7.4 Copyright Copyright protects literary, artistic and scientific works that are directly created and expressed in material form. Protection does not depend on content, qual - ity, form, medium, language, publication status or registration. Protected works include written works, lectures, press works, musical works, stage works, films, fine-art and applied-art works, photographs, architectural works, maps, folklore works, computer programs and data compilations. Derivative works are protected only where they do not prejudice copyright in the underlying work. Copyright arises automatically upon creation and fixa - tion. Registration is not required to obtain or enjoy protection, but it is useful evidence. A copyright reg - istration certificate means the registrant need not prove ownership in a dispute unless contrary evi - dence exists. Foreign applicants without permanent residence or a local head office, representative office
or branch must file through an authorised copyright representative in Vietnam. Copyright consists of moral rights and economic rights. Moral rights include the right to title the work, be named, publish or authorise publication and pro - tect the integrity of the work. Economic rights include making derivative works, public performance, repro - duction, distribution, import for public distribution, broadcasting or communication to the public, making the work available to the public at a chosen place and time and rental of cinematographic works or computer programs where the computer program is the main rental object. The moral rights to title, attribution and integrity are protected indefinitely. For films, photographic works, applied art works and anonymous works, the publi - cation rights and economic rights are generally pro - tected for 75 years from first publication or 100 years from fixation if certain works are not published within 25 years. For other works, economic rights are gener - ally protected for the author’s life plus 50 years. For co-authored works, the term ends 50 years after the death of the last surviving co-author. Copyright enforcement is particularly relevant online. Right holders may use technological protection meas - ures, request the removal of infringing content from the internet or telecommunications networks, request that competent authorities handle infringement and bring court or arbitration proceedings. Digital platform owners and intermediary service providers have obli - gations to receive and handle takedown or access- blocking requests, provide contact points and comply with safe-harbour conditions. 7.5 Others Computer programs are protected as works of copy - right, not as a separate IP category. Computer pro - grams are protected whether expressed in source code or machine code. Computer programs as such are excluded from patent protection, so protection normally depends on copyright, contracts, confiden - tiality and trade secrets. Vietnam does not recognise a sui generis database right. Databases are protected by copyright only
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