Vietnam: Add a New Ground for Invalidation of Patent
A new ground for invalidation of patent relating to inventors has been added to the 2025 Vietnam’s Law Amending the Intellectual Property Law (the “Amending IP Law”) which came into effect from 1 April 2026. Particularly, a patent can be invalidated if the inventor(s) do/does not meet the requirements set forth in Article 122(1) of the IP Law. Article 122(1) of the IP Law specifies that an inventor of an invention is the natural person who directly created the invention; where two or more persons have jointly and directly created the invention, they are co-inventors. Accordingly, in case the inventor(s) is/are not natural person(s), a patent can be invalidated. This added ground aims to provide legal basis for invalidation of patent in case the invention is created by artificial intelligence (AI). Below is a summary of grounds and competent authorities who handle invalidation of patent under the current IP Law and other laws.