Almost three months after the Intellectual Property Law 50/2005 (IP Law) came into effect, The IP Law 50/2005 of Vietnam came into force as of July 1st, 2006. in September 2007 the Vietnamese Government issued a number of implementing decrees for implementation of the IP Law, namely:

• Decree 100/2006/ND-CP (Decree 100) dated 21 September 2006 that details and guides the implementation of a number of articles of the Civil Code and the IP Law regarding the copyright and related rights. The type of works addressed in the IP Law is specifically defined in Decree 100 that also provides the definitions of moral and property rights. The decree also provides guidelines on registration procedure of copyrights and related rights and some other aspects of copyright enforcement.
• Decree 103/2006/ND-CP dated 22 September 2006 that makes detailed provisions and guidelines to implement provisions on industrial property rights of the IP Law 50/2005. Decree 103 provides detailed regulations on the acquisition, the ownership, the limitations and transfer of industrial property rights, the expert opinion on intellectual property rights ("IPR") infringement, as well as the representation as industrial property attorneys.
• Decree 104/2006/ND-CP dated 22 September 2006, which establishes detailed provisions and guidelines to implement provisions on plant variety rights of the IP Law 50/2005. Decree 104 provides detailed regulations on the procedure for acquisition of plant variety rights, including formality and substantive examination procedure and deposit of plant materials.
• Decree 105/2006/ND-CP dated 22 September 2006, which makes detailed provisions and guidelines to implement provisions on enforcement of IPRs and state administration provided for in IP Law 50/2005. Decree 105 provides guidelines for determination of infringement act(s), the grounds to determine and calculate damages, the procedures to lodge and settle IPR disputes. Decree 105 also provides detailed regulations on handling infringement by administrative measures, on border measure control for IP related goods, on IP expert opinion, as well as on State management in the IP field.
• Decree No 106/2006/ND-CP dated 22 September 2006 that details and guides the implementation of the provisions on handling of administrative violations concerning industrial property. There are two main kinds of sanctions provided in the decree, namely warning and fine. Additional sanctions and compulsory remedial measures may also be imposed including confiscation of exhibits and/or means used for administrative violations, withdrawal of certificate of registration of industrial property rights, suspension of business activities, removal of infringing elements, demolition of infringing goods, publication of corrective notices, etc.

Further, on 14 February 2007 the Minister of Science and Technology (MOST) Formerly Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment (MOSTE). signed Circular 01/2007/TT-BKHCN (Circular 01); which implements Decree 103/2006/ND-CP. Circular 01/2007 replaces three former circulars established by the MOST, namely Circular 30/2003/TT-BKHCN providing guidelines for implementation of procedures for protection of IPRs with respect to inventions and utility solutions (Circular 30), Circular 30 replaced the corresponding parts with respect to inventions and utility solutions under Circular 3055 of the MOSTE. Circular 29/2003/TT-BKHCN providing guidelines for implementation of procedures for protection of IPRs with respect to industrial designs (Circular 29), Circular 29 replaced the corresponding parts with respect to industrial designs under Circular 3055 of the MOSTE. The provisions on trademarks under Circular 3055 remained effective until the advent of Circular 01/2007. and Circular 3055/TT-SHTT promulgated in 1996 by the MOSTE The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment. providing guidelines for implementation of procedures for protection of IPRs with respect to trademarks (Circular 3055). The summary below will address the some notable changes in connection with procedures for the acquisition of IPRs provided for in Circular 01. The changes are regarded as to minimize burdens on applicants and at the same time harmonize Vietnamese industrial property laws and regulations with international norms and practices.

Patent Rights
Filing Requirements
With regards to national patent applications other than PCT-derived applications, unlike the previous patent regulations, the applicant in accordance with Circular 01 is no longer allowed to furnish the original Power of Attorney within three months computed from the filing date. Although a copy of Power of Attorney is no longer required at filing, the original Power of Attorney now must be submitted to the NOIP within one month from the date on which the NOIP issues the Notification of Defects(s) for the patent application notifying the applicant of the missing documents. A one month extension for late submission of the document is available upon the payment of late submission fees.

Internal priority
Within 12 month period from the filing date of a first patent application filed in Vietnam, if the applicant files a subsequent patent application claiming priority from the first patent application, a patent may be granted only to the subsequent patent application. The first application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.

Publication
All applications that have been accepted as to form shall be published for the purpose of opposition in the 19th month from the priority date, or within 2 months from the date of the acceptance as to form of the application, whichever is later. Under the previous regulations, in case the applicant files the request for examination before the expiration of the 18-month period, the application shall be published in the second month from the date of the request. However, according to new regulations of Circular 01, without a request for early publication the applicant shall wait until the 19th month for his application to be published even if he files the request for examination well before that date.

Re-examination
The re-examination is provided for the first time in the IP Law 50/2005 and concretized in Circular 01. According to Circular 01, a patent application shall be re-examined only once in any of the following cases: (i) the applicant files a written response to the office action within the period from the date of the Notification of Intention of refusal/grant of a patent until the Notification of Refusal/Grant of a patent in order to appeal against the NOIP's intention; (ii) any third party may file a written opposition against the NOIP's Notification with appropriate reasons why the opposition for the published application has not yet been filed with the NOIP prior to the Notification; (iii) the applicant files a request for narrowing the claims.

Procedures relating to international patent applications
With regards to the Vietnamese patent application derived from PCT applications, the time limit for entry into Vietnam national phase of PCT applications remains 31 months computed from the earliest priority date. However, a six month late entry into Vietnam national phase is now available under new patent regulations subject to a late entry fee.

Additional requirements for patent applications for pharmaceutical inventions and inventions relating to genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge
In addition to the requirements for patent applications in general, Circular 01 for the first time provides that the patent specification for pharmaceutical invention shall comprise therein the results of the clinical tests and pharmaceutical effects of the pharmaceuticals. At least the following information is required (i) Test/Assay method/system used; (ii) Composition and/or Combination used in the test/assay; (iii) Results of the test/assay; (iv) The interaction between the results relating to the pharmaceutical effects obtained in the test/assay and the real effects of the pharmaceuticals in prevention, diagnosis, and/or treatment of a disease.

The patent specification for pharmaceutical invention shall, in addition to other requirements for a patent application in general, include therein a document describing the origin of any genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge that the inventor and/or the applicant has accessed. In case the origin of genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge cannot be determined, he/she must declare the same in the patent specification and be liable for the veracity thereof.

Restoration of the validity of a patent
Under previous regulations, a patent owner has the right to restore his patent if it has expired prematurely because of the failure to pay the annual maintenance fees by the prescribed period of time. New patent regulations are absolutely silent on such provisions. That is, if the patentee fails to pay due annuities before the expiration of 6 months after the date on which the patent was deemed to have been prematurely expired, there is no way to restore the patent.

Trademark Rights
Filing Requirements
Unlike the previous trademark regulations, according to the new regulations (Circular 01) Power of Attorney is no longer required to be notarized by a Notary Public, it needs to be signed by the applicant only. Also, the applicant needs not submit a copy of the signed Power of Attorney at filing. The NOIP may, however, during the examination as to form, issue a Notification of Defects and give the applicant one month within which to furnish the originally signed Power of Attorney. Such a one month period is extendable.

Under the new regulations, in addition to the regulations of using collective/certification marks, the applicant of the applications for collective mark or certification mark is also required to submit a presentation on unique quality and characters of products bearing the mark (if the registration mark is collective mark used for products having unique quality or certification mark certifying quality or geographic origin of product) or a territory-identifying map in case the mark is certification mark certifying geographic origin of product).

Further, the NOIP does no longer request Vietnamese applicant to furnish with a certified copy of business license when filing a trademark application in Vietnam as previously required.

Guidelines and criteria for trademark examination
Prior to Circular 01, in the previous trademark legislation there were no legal provisions relating to the guidelines and criteria for trademark examination. In practice, the NOIP had applied its own manual for examination of trademarks for rather long time. Trademark examination guidelines are now provided for in Circular 01 including guidelines for assessment of trademark distinctiveness as well as likelihood of confusion.

Basically, the main points of the guidelines in the Circular are similar to those of the old NOIP's manual, except some minor changes, for example, on the examination of the distinctiveness of the signs in letters and numerals. Specifically, in the old manual words from foreign languages of non-Latin origin that ordinary Vietnamese consumers could not be able to pronounce, to understand and/or to remember had been considered distinctive. Examples of those words include, inter alia, Arabian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters. According to the new regulations, such words from foreign languages of non-Latin origin shall be regarded as non-distinctive unless the characters from such non-Latin languages are presented together with other elements to form a distinctive presentation as a whole or in the form of graphic presentation, or any other special presentation.

Further, the signs in letters of Latin origin that were non-pronounceable were excluded from protection according to the old manual. Under the Circular 01, such signs shall be excluded from protection only in the case the signs consist of only one numeral, one letter, or two letters that cannot make a pronounceable word. Also, the signs in letters shall be excluded from protection if they consist of too many letters not in specific order so that the resulting presentations thereof cannot be recognizable and memorable.

International trademark registration
With regards to the filing date of an international trademark registration that has designated Vietnam, Circular 01 explicitly provides that the international filing date of such registration shall be recorded as national filing date in Vietnam.

The procedures for filing international trademark applications through Madrid Agreement and Madrid Protocol for the first time are discussed in the new regulations in details. The guidelines for prosecution of international trademark registrations in Vietnam are also provided in the new Circular 01.

Types of marks — three-dimensional trademark
Although Circular 3055 did not provide for registration of three-dimensional trademarks, this type of marks in practice has been accepted for registration by the NOIP for long time. New Circular 01 merely textualizes the NOIP's examination practice and provides some specific requirements for three-dimensional trademarks. Specifically, specimens of a three-dimensional mark should be accompanied by photos or drawings showing the 3D form of the mark in perspective and may be accompanied by descriptions of the views of the mark.

International Classification for Goods and Services, 9th edition
As of 1 January 2007, the NOIP has acceded to the 9th edition of International Classification for Goods and Services.

Industrial Design Rights
There is no notable development in relation to the regulations on industrial design rights over the period from 1 September 2006 to 31 September 2007. However, there are some changes regarding the filing procedures, the requirements for drawings/photographs for industrial design, and the assessment of creativity for industrial design of different products. It is believed that those changes help to define scope of protection of industrial design more clearly.

Copyrights and related Rights
The Copyright Office of Vietnam is now under jurisdiction of the Ministry of renamed the Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Tourism. The Ministry of Culture and Information has merged with General Department of Tourism and the Committee on Sports Activities to become the Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Tourism. In general, there is no significant development in relation to the regulations on copyrights and related rights over the period from 1 September 2006 to 31 September 2007. The followings are some changes relating to the instruction of the Primer Minister on copyright protection of computer programs for the government agencies and localities and international conventions of which Vietnam is member.

Prime Minister's Instruction on copyright protection of computer programs
Prime Minister's Instruction No. 04/2007/CT-TTg entrusted Ministers and Heads of some ministries and state agencies with direct and set up detailed measures to take towards copyright protection of computer programs; set aside a budget for purchasing copyright of computer programs for their agencies and localities; develop a plan in accordance with their competence to settle the unlicensed computer programs used in agencies and localities. Prime Minister entrusted Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism with drafting legal framework for computer programs copyrights.

International Conventions and Treaties Participation
Vietnam officially became member of the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations. On 1 December 2006, the Vietnamese Government completed all accession procedures and officially became Contracting Party to the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations. The Rome Convention officially came into force in Vietnam on 1 March 2007.