At-a-glance:
National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam
384-386, Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +844 3858 3069 or 3558 8217, Fax: +844 3858 8449 or 3858 4002
Email: congnghethongtin@noip.gov.vn or vietnamipo@noip.gov.vn
Website:...
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At-a-glance:
National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam
384-386, Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +844 3858 3069 or 3558 8217,
Fax: +844 3858 8449 or 3858 4002
Email: congnghethongtin@noip.gov.vn or
vietnamipo@noip.gov.vn
Website: www.noip.gov.vn
Copyright Office of Vietnam
151 Hoang Hoa Tham Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +844 3823 6908
Fax: +844 3843 2630
Email: cbgtg@hn.vnn.vn
Website: www.cov.gov.vn
Vietnam is arguably still in the early stages of raising its IP protection standards to the level of more mature economies. Widespread infringement and counterfeiting continue to inhibit the growth of IP awareness, which affects innovation and global competitiveness.
Practitioners express frustration about the difficulties in protecting their client's IP rights, citing implementation as a major shortcoming in the system.
"The IP legislation here in Vietnam is sufficient; the problem is when it is put into practice," says Dang Thi Hong Thuy from D&N International.
In 2012, both the USPTO and the European Chamber of Commerce criticised Vietnam for its weak IP protection.
Practitioners also point to lack of expertise within the legal system. "One reason is that the court's IP knowledge is not too good," Dang explains. "The court system is weak; we don't have a specialised IP court, so the civil judge is in charge of many aspects."
As a result, for IP owners often the only viable redress is taking their enforcement actions to administrative agencies, which poses its own problems. Chris Vale from Rouse points out that this avenue takes too long to settle a case: "Enforcement does happen but mainly through the administrative authorities. Understandably, that is a bureaucratic system, so it can take a long time. Cases that would ordinarily go to a court in other jurisdictions, you wouldn't take them to court there because at the moment it's too just uncertain, too easy to delay."
Many hope that the situation will change soon. "Intellectual property, infringement and companies will only become more sophisticated," says Vale. "Ideally complex issues would go to the courts soon but there is a lack of experience here and so training is needed to deal with sophisticated IP cases."
There have been incremental efforts to further protect internet content with two circulars issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The first took effect on August 6 2012 (Circular No 07/2012/TTLT), which stated that intermediary service providers are now directly responsible for ensuring that publications respect copyright, are obligated to remove infringing content and will be directly liable for infringement. The second circular took effect on February 1 2013 (Circular No 15/2012/TT) and guides verification of copyright and other relevant rights.
Still, Vietnam's IP system continues to mature, though perhaps not as fast as rights owners would like. Practitioners are expecting to witness the first copyright infringement case to be brought for trial in a dispute that has been escalating throughout 2012. On September 26 2012 Tri Viet (First News) Publishing House announced its intention to sue Quoc Te My School for using pirated copies of several book titles that First House holds the copyrights to. The announcement comes after its first win against the Viet Nam Australia-Society English Centre, which settled the claim for Vnd390 million ($19,000) and an apology.
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