Vietnam: Amended Intellectual Property (IP) Law was Passed - the Progress of Amending the Law

On 16 June 2022, the National Assembly passed the amended IP law with 95.58% of approval and the law will take effect from 1 January 2023. However, the final version of the law has not yet been available to the public. Without the final version of the law on hand, reports on the amendments may not be exact. When the final version is available, we will report the amendments on our website at https://investip.vn/news-insights/

In the meantime, below is the progress of amending the law.

After more than 15 years of implementation, Law on Intellectual Property (IP law) No. 50/2005/QH11 effected from 1 July 2006 (amended and supplemented twice in 2009 and 2019) revealed certain shortcomings and limitations, especially in the context of the intensive, extensive and comprehensive international integration of Vietnam. In that situation, the Vietnamese Government considered it very necessary to improve the IP law in order to meet the requirements of practice, the requirements of administrative procedure reformation, to ensure effective implementation of international commitments on IP in the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) of which Vietnam had been negotiating or signed. Furthermore, this is also intended to promote the application of scientific and technological research outcomes to production and business, contributing to the national development of socio-economic.

In response to the requirements of the aforementioned context, Resolution No. 11-NQ/TW dated 3 June 2017 of the 5th Plenum of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) set out the task of improving the institutions on IP in the direction of encouraging creativity, ensuring transparency and high reliability and effectively protecting and enforcing IP rights. After that, the drafted amendments were developed and introduced for debates and public consultation, then discussed and passed by the National Assembly of Vietnam with the following complex progress:

1. 1st draft: In September 2020, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) introduced and published the 1st draft of the amended IP law on its web portal for debates and public consultation.

2. 2nd draft: After receiving the comments from the public including Vietnamese IP Agents, the MOST considered and made some revisions to the draft and then submitted the 2nd draft of the amended IP law to the National Assembly for comments at the second session of the XV National Assembly in October 2021.

3. 3rd draft: After the second session of the XV National Assembly, the Legal Committee of the National Assembly held workshops to receive more comments on the foregoing draft, continuously revised it and submitted the 3rd draft to its eighth meeting on 15 February 2022 for further discussions.

4. 4th draft: During the period of February - May 2022, the Legal Committee of the National Assembly as well as the National Assembly delegations held conferences/seminars to further discuss the draft, obtain comments from the IP experts to revise and complete the 4th draft, to submit it to the National Assembly for further discussions on the seventh day of the third session of the XV National Assembly on 31 May 2022. In this session, the National Assembly listened to the explanations, absorbed as well as further revised the 4th draft amended IP law, and continued to discuss some contents with contrasting opinions of this 4th draft amended IP law to complete the draft.

5. Passed draft: As mentioned above, on 16 June 2022, after listening to explanations of the Legal Committee on the amendments in the draft, the National Assembly voted to pass the amended IP law with 95.58% of approval and the law will officially take effect from 1 January 2023. Essentially, almost all of the opinions agreed with the 4th draft, except for some unclear contents mentioned at the meeting of 31 May 2022, and the explanations on 16 June 2022. Therefore, in order to issue the final amended IP law, the draft is still needed to be revised and supplemented to clarify such unclear contents. This is why the final version of the amended IP law has not yet been available to the public.

The amending of the IP law is a step forward in perfecting the institution of IP in order to overcome practical obstacles and inadequacies for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the state management of IP, contributing to promote the developments of the economy, culture and society of the country.

Source: lexology.com-Do Tuyet Nhung and Nguyen Thi Le Na

Editor: IPR Daily-Selly