Although Vietnam’s intellectual property right registration abroad hasrecently seen positive changes, the number of registration applicationshanded to the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP)each year remains too small, reported the Ministry of Industry andTrade's Vietnam Economic News.
Before 2013, each year only someenterprises were allowed to have intellectual property registrationabroad. However, in 2013 there were 115 international registrationapplications, including 12 patent registrations abroad and 103 trademarkregistrations.
Compared to recent years, this was a big changein the number of intellectual property registrations and reflected thegrowing awareness of Vietnamese people and enterprises on intellectualproperty in face of the increasing violation cases of intellectualproperty rights.
However, this number of applications remainedtoo modest if compared to 76,000 applications of different kinds toestablish their rights at the NOIP in 2013 including more than 400patent registrations and 24,656 trademark registrations.
NguyenVan Bay, Director of the NOIP's Centre for Research and Training, saidin many cases, the data may not reflect core issues of the situation asthe above data may not be complete. There are two ways for thebusinesses to have their intellectual property rights registered abroad.They can hand in applications to each country or to the National Officeof Intellectual Property, which then examines the applications andsubmit to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
According to NOIP Director Ta Quang Minh, the businesses have not paidattention to intellectual property right registration abroad becausethey have not or have not been able to work out export strategies tothese markets. Meanwhile, if they want to build and develop trademarks,the intellectual property right registration must come along with otheractivities such as advertising, introducing products and setting updistribution channels.
The intellectual property rightregistration abroad in fact is not an easy job, very costly and waste oftime for the Vietnamese businesses, mostly small- and medium-sized onesand the scientists’ salaries remain low. For example, to apply forgrant of patents in the US, it will cost thousands of US dollars andtake about one year to be examined. If granted, then businesses willhave to pay an additional amount of money annually for protection (about1,000 USD a year) within 20 years.
It is necessary to haveintellectual property rights registered but it is more important toexploit those protected intellectual property rights. For example,Vietnam registered trademarks for the coffee tree but still exportsmainly in the form of raw materials. Therefore, after importingVietnamese coffee, foreign producers then process the products and usetheir names and trademarks. If this continues, Vietnam will never havecoffee products of their own trademarks in the world market.
Director Bay said to save costs and avoid risks when submittingregistration applications abroad, the businesses should submit them tothe Madrid system managed by WIPO, which will bring trademark protectionto users in 79 countries by an only registration application.
It is said that the costs for trademark protection if handingapplications to the NOIP are only about 300 USD, including costs handedto state agencies and hiring lawyers. It will be much cheaper ifcompared to handing a single application to each country. By this way,the registration application will be reviewed by the NOIP beforesubmitting to WIPO, helping reduce many possible risks.-VNA
Before 2013, each year only someenterprises were allowed to have intellectual property registrationabroad. However, in 2013 there were 115 international registrationapplications, including 12 patent registrations abroad and 103 trademarkregistrations.
Compared to recent years, this was a big changein the number of intellectual property registrations and reflected thegrowing awareness of Vietnamese people and enterprises on intellectualproperty in face of the increasing violation cases of intellectualproperty rights.
However, this number of applications remainedtoo modest if compared to 76,000 applications of different kinds toestablish their rights at the NOIP in 2013 including more than 400patent registrations and 24,656 trademark registrations.
NguyenVan Bay, Director of the NOIP's Centre for Research and Training, saidin many cases, the data may not reflect core issues of the situation asthe above data may not be complete. There are two ways for thebusinesses to have their intellectual property rights registered abroad.They can hand in applications to each country or to the National Officeof Intellectual Property, which then examines the applications andsubmit to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
According to NOIP Director Ta Quang Minh, the businesses have not paidattention to intellectual property right registration abroad becausethey have not or have not been able to work out export strategies tothese markets. Meanwhile, if they want to build and develop trademarks,the intellectual property right registration must come along with otheractivities such as advertising, introducing products and setting updistribution channels.
The intellectual property rightregistration abroad in fact is not an easy job, very costly and waste oftime for the Vietnamese businesses, mostly small- and medium-sized onesand the scientists’ salaries remain low. For example, to apply forgrant of patents in the US, it will cost thousands of US dollars andtake about one year to be examined. If granted, then businesses willhave to pay an additional amount of money annually for protection (about1,000 USD a year) within 20 years.
It is necessary to haveintellectual property rights registered but it is more important toexploit those protected intellectual property rights. For example,Vietnam registered trademarks for the coffee tree but still exportsmainly in the form of raw materials. Therefore, after importingVietnamese coffee, foreign producers then process the products and usetheir names and trademarks. If this continues, Vietnam will never havecoffee products of their own trademarks in the world market.
Director Bay said to save costs and avoid risks when submittingregistration applications abroad, the businesses should submit them tothe Madrid system managed by WIPO, which will bring trademark protectionto users in 79 countries by an only registration application.
It is said that the costs for trademark protection if handingapplications to the NOIP are only about 300 USD, including costs handedto state agencies and hiring lawyers. It will be much cheaper ifcompared to handing a single application to each country. By this way,the registration application will be reviewed by the NOIP beforesubmitting to WIPO, helping reduce many possible risks.-VNA
