1. Concept of Industrial Design:
In Clause 13, Article 4 of the New Law, the definition of industrial design has been supplemented that a protected sign that is not only the external appearance of the product but also parts of the design for assembly into a complex product which can be seen while using such products. This supplement is to fulfil the obligation in Article 12.35 of the EVFTA Agreement on partial/partial protection of a completed complex product and clearly define the scope of industrial design protection.
2. Requirements for industrial design registration applications (Article 103):
In the New Law, Article 103 emphasizes on the requirements of the application, which includes a set of photos and/or drawings featuring the industrial design, rather than what writing in the description by the applicant in the old regulations. Thus, the application now has shown the nature of industrial design, which is the design characteristics are presented by photos and/or drawings rather than by the applicant’s description in order to determine the scope of protection.
3. Publication of industrial design registration applications (Article 110)
In Article 110 of the New Law, Clause 3 has been added which allow applicants to delay the publication of industrial design to match the general trend of the world on allowing the applicant not to disclose the design too early (due to ease of imitation) to have time to prepare before officially launching the industrial design, particularly:
Article 110.3. Industrial design registration applications, trademark registration applications, geographical indication registration applications shall be published within two months from the date the application is accepted as a valid application. Industrial design applications may be published at a later date as requested by the applicant at the time of application but not later than seven months from the filing date of application.
In addition to the above regulations, the new Law also has a number of amendments such as: determining the owner of industrial design objects, validity of protection titles, termination and invalidation of international industrial design applications in order to consistent with The Hague Agreement that Vietnam has recently joined.
The above is a summary of the separate provisions related to industrial design in the new Law. However, industrial design is also one of the objects of industrial property, therefore, in addition to the above-mentioned regulations, industrial design is also regulated by other provisions.
