Duong & Tran Intellectual Property

Patent Prosecution Highway Program between Korean Intellectual Property Office and Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam

8/6/2026

Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program for accelerating examination of patent applications between Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPVN) (KR-VN PPH program) was launched on 1 June 2019. The program is continuing to be extended from 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2028. There is a maximum of 100 requests filed each year in Vietnam.

Procedures and time reduced when applying the KR-VN PPH program

Under the KR-VN PPH program, IPVN and KIPO will refer to substantive examination results of corresponding patent applications issued by each other aiming to reduce redundant work already conducted by one office and hence, to accelerate the examination process. A patent application applying for the program must satisfy certain criteria.

The statutory period for substantive examination is 12 months from the date of requesting substantive examination or from the publication date, depending on which date is later (the starting date of substantive examination). If a KR-VN PPH request is filed, IPVN normally issues the first Office Action 9 months from the starting date of substantive examination.

First, IPVN will examine if the application is qualified for the KR-VN PPH program and then if all the required documents are submitted. If the application is qualified for the KR-VN PPH program and any of the required documents are missing, the applicant may supplement the missing documents. Even when IPVN informs that an application does not meet the criteria for the KR-VN PPH program, the applicant still has the opportunity to apply for the KR-VN PPH program again if the maximum number of requests is not reached in the prescribed period and provided that all criteria must be satisfied at the time of re-submitting PPH.

Criteria for applying KR-VN PPH program

  • A Vietnamese patent application is
    • (i) an application which validly claims priority under the Paris Convention to the KR application(s), or
    • (ii) a national phase of PCT application without priority claim filed at KIPO as receiving office (the PCT application number begins with PCT/KR), or
    • (iii) an application which validly claims priority under the Paris Convention to a PCT/KR application(s).
    • The Vietnamese patent application, which validly claims priority to multiple KR or direct PCT applications, or which is the divisional application validly based on the originally filed application that is included in (i) to (iii) above, is also eligible.
    • The program is not applicable for applications corresponding to KR “utility model” applications.
  • At least one corresponding KR application exists and has one or more claims that are determined to be patentable/allowable by KIPO.
  • All claims on file, as originally filed or as amended, for examination under the PPH must sufficiently correspond to one or more of those claims indicated as allowable in the corresponding KR application(s).
  • IPVN has not begun examination of the application at the time of request for the PPH.
  • A “Request for Substantive Examination” must have been filed at IPVN either at the time of the PPH request or previously.

Required documents

  • A PPH Request (in prescribed form) includes a claim correspondence table that indicates how all claims in the VN application sufficiently correspond to the patentable/allowable claims of the KR application. If the claims of the VN application are identical to the allowed claims of the corresponding KR application, indication “they are the same” is sufficient;
  • Copies of all office actions (which are relevant to substantive examination for patentability in KIPO) which were issued for the corresponding application by KIPO, and their Vietnamese or English translations;
    • Normally, IPVN can access English machine translations of the documents via the K-PION (http://kpion.kipo.go.kr/) (KIPO’s dossier access system), therefore, the documents may not be required.
  • Copies of all claims of the corresponding application(s) determined to be patentable/allowable by KIPO, and their Vietnamese or English translations;
    • Although IPVN can obtain English machine translation of claims via the K-PION, it is recommended to submit a human English translation of the allowed claims to ensure the correct protection scope.
  • Copies of non-patent references cited by the KIPO (their translations are not necessary);
    • Please note that patent references are not required.

If any of the above documents has already been submitted to IPVN through other procedures (for example, amendment), it need not be submitted again; instead, a note indicating “previously submitted in the relevant procedure” is sufficient.

Fees

There is no official fee for a KR-VN PPH request.

Additional actions needed when requesting the PPH in Vietnam

Substantive examination of a patent application starts from the later of (i) date of submitting a request for substantive examination or (ii) the publication date. Therefore, even if a request for substantive examination is submitted prior to the publication date, the substantive examination will not commence until the publication date.

A direct national application will be published in the later of (i) one month from the date the application is recognized as valid after formality examination or (ii) in the 19th month from the earliest priority date (if there is priority) or the filing date (if there is no priority). A PCT application will be published within one month from the date the application is recognized as valid after formality examination. Therefore, additional action may be needed for acceleration of substantive examination under the PPH request.

Request for early publication for direct national applications

This procedure may be necessary for direct national applications if at the time of requesting PPH, the application has not yet been published. There is no official fee for early publication.

Request for early handling of PCT applications

The formality examination of PCT applications in the Vietnamese national phase is only started from the first day of the 32nd month from the earliest priority date (if there is priority) or from the international filing date (if there is no priority) (hereinafter referred to as “the start date”). Even if a PCT application is entered into the Vietnamese national phase before the start date, the application will not be handled until the start date. If the start date is prior to the date of requesting PPH, the applicant must file a request for early handling of the PCT application for acceleration of substantive examination under the PPH request.

There is no official fee for requesting early handling of PCT applications.

Expected IPVN’s grant based on KIPO’s grant

Please note that IPVN is not obligated to follow the examination results of the KIPO. This means that even if KIPO grants a patent for a corresponding KR patent application for the same invention, IPVN may still refuse to grant a Vietnamese patent.

Special note should be taken regarding pharmaceutical inventions or computer-related inventions, where eligibility for patent protection may be different between Korea and Vietnam.

Should you require further assistance regarding the above matter, please feel free to contact us at the following e-mail address: hanoi@duongtran.vn.