HOW TO DEAL WITH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DISPUTES IN VIETNAM

There is no regulation or any article stipulating IP disputes in Vietnam. However, according to the Article 198 of the current IP Law, the protected intellectual properties are infringed by other individuals or organizations, the IPR owner is entitled to take measures to enforce their rights. Specifically:

Apply technology measures to prevent infringements
Request the infringers to stop their infringement acts, apologize, publicize their infringements, compensate for damages
Request state agencies to handle infringements and
Sue to the court to protect their legitimate IPRs.

It can be seen that “applying technology measures to prevent infringements” is a measure taken unilaterally by the IPR owners to prevent early infringements. The “request the infringers to stop their infringement acts, apologize, publicize their infringements, compensate for damages”, on the other hand, is a dispute resolve effort made by related parties without the involvement of “hard” solutions in dealing with disputes. Legally when IP disputes occur, IP owner can use state institutions to enforce their IPR either in terms of:

Initiate lawsuits to protect legitimate rights and interests (known as “civil measures)
Request state agencies to handle infringements enforcement (known as “administrative measures”).

1, About the civil measures

According to Article 37 of the 2015 Civil Code Law, disputes which occur during the using and exploiting IPs for the commercial purpose deem as business disputes and thereby, under the jurisdiction of provincial people’s court.

According to regulations, during involvement of a civil lawsuit, IPR owners have the right to request the court to stop infringement acts, apologize and publicize it, damage the infringed goods and compensate for physical and mental damages caused by the infringers in a way that the damages can be calculated and proved. Furthermore, during the lawsuit or during the process of handling the dispute, IPR owner also has the right to request the court to apply Temporary Emergency Measure in some particular cases.

In fact, IPR owners do not actively protect their civil rights by civil measures, and in the opposite direction, the civil mechanism in Vietnam is not usually helpful in resolving disputes during the process of using IPs.

2, About the administrative measures

Up on responsibilities assigned, the authorized state agencies to handle IP infringements are diversified from Economic Police (the Ministry of Public Security); Market Surveillance Agency (the Ministry of Industry and Trade); Customs (the Ministry of Finance) and Inspectors of those ministries.

When an alleged infringement act occurs, IPR owner must find a Vietnamese legal representative to file and handle infringement cases before the Vietnam authorities. The request of resolving infringements should specify the IP object, the alleged infringers and detailed information about the individuals, organizations and solutions to resolve.

According to the Decree 99/2013/NĐ-CP regulating penalties in IP, if the infringements are determined, the infringed individual/organizations may be fined; suspended for a definite time in the production and trade of infringed goods and services; removed the infringed elements on goods or destroy the goods and means of violated business.

If you or your client would like to find a good IP representative in Vietnam to deal with IP dispute cases, please consider to find out more about us or contact for further consultation. Banca is one of TOP 10 leading IP agents in Vietnam with over 20 years of experience. For further detailed services that we provide please or leave us an email at mailbox@bancavip.com.

Compiled by: Banca IP Law Firm