News & Updates

IP law developments across Southeast Asia

Vietnam

Reduction and Simplification of Administrative Procedures and Business Conditions in the Field of Intellectual Property under Resolution No. 66.18/2026/NQ-CP

On 18 May 2026, the Government issued Resolution No. 66.18/2026/NQ-CP, effective from 1 July 2026 until the end of 28 February 2027, on the delegation of jurisdiction, reduction and simplification of administrative procedures and business conditions (Resolution 66.18). This Resolution is intended to implement the State’s policy on reducing and simplifying administrative procedures and business conditions in order to create more favorable conditions for the people and other subjects engaged in business and administrative activities in Vietnam. Following the issuance of this Resolution, specialized laws, including the Law on Intellectual Property (IP Law), and their guiding documents will also need to be amended accordingly to implement the contents of the Resolution.

8/14/2026Read more →

Vietnam

Notice and Stay-Down Policy Introduced into E-Commerce Law and its Guiding Regulations

The Law on E-Commerce, promulgated on 10 December 2025 and effective from 1 July 2026, and Decree No. 248/2026/ND-CP dated 30 June 2026 detailing a number of articles of the Law on E-Commerce, effective from 1 July 2026 (Decree 248), for the first time codify the “stay-down” principle in respect of violations in commercial transactions in the digital environment. Previously, the responsibility of intermediary service providers was regulated on a reactive basis, meaning that the obligation to remove infringing content only arose once notice of the infringement had been given (notice and take-down). The Law on E-Commerce and Decree 248 have introduced the responsibility of e-commerce platform operators on a proactive basis, specifically the responsibility to prevent the recurrence of infringements (notice and stay-down). In practice, repeat infringement occurs very commonly and at a high frequency in e-commerce activities. Immediately after infringing content is removed or access to it is blocked, infringers can easily re-upload the same infringing subject matter to the same e-commerce platform under a different account. As a result, rights holders have had to repeat the process of notice and take-down multiple times for the same infringing subject matter.

8/14/2026Read more →

Vietnam

Decision No. 1782/QD-BCT on the Action Plan to Improve the Effectiveness of Administrative Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the 2026–2027 Period

On 17 July 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) issued Decision No. 1782/QD-BCT on the action plan to improve the effectiveness of administrative enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights by MOIT for the 2026–2027 period (Decision 1782). MOIT is the line ministry of the Market Surveillance Authority (MS), which is one of the authorities responsible for handling administrative violations of IP rights. Accordingly, Decision 1782 will directly affect the handling of administrative IP violations by MS and a number of other cooperating authorities, such as the Copyright Office and the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPVN), in the coming period.

8/13/2026Read more →

Vietnam

The Copyright Office Renamed as the Department of Cultural Industries and Copyright

On 27 July 2026, the Government issued Decree No. 298/2026/ND-CP providing for the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. This Decree takes effect from 28 July 2026 (Decree 298). Under this Decree, the Copyright Office is renamed as the Department of Cultural Industries and Copyright.

8/12/2026Read more →

Vietnam

Vietnam Further Relaxes Requirements on Foreign Filing Licenses for Patents under the 2025 Amendment to the Law on Intellectual Property

Following the relaxation of security control requirements for patents under the 2022 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Intellectual Property (the IP Law), the 2025 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the IP Law, effective from 1 April 2026, further relaxes the security control requirements for patents, specifically by no longer requiring an applicant to file the first domestic patent application before being permitted to file a corresponding patent application abroad. Instead of filing the first domestic patent application, where an invention/utility solution is subject to security control, the applicant now only needs to file a request for license to file a patent application abroad (foreign filing license) with the Ministry of National Defense or the Ministry of Public Security. In addition, the scope of inventions/utility solutions subject to foreign filing license has been narrowed, now applying only to inventions/utility solutions falling under the list of state secrets. These amendments, in particular the removal of the requirement to file the first domestic patent application before filing a patent application abroad, represent significant progress, reducing the time, effort and cost for rights holders whose inventions/utility solutions are subject to security control but who have no need to file a patent application in Vietnam. Set out below is a summary of certain amendments relating to this requirement.

8/12/2026Read more →

Vietnam

Decree No. 293/2026/ND-CP Guiding the Implementation of the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the Apostille Convention)

On 31 December 2025, Vietnam’s instrument of accession to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the Apostille Convention – the Convention) was deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands – the Depositary of the Convention – and notified to the Contracting States. Under this arrangement, the Apostille Convention will officially take effect for Vietnam and will apply between Vietnam and the Contracting States that have accepted this accession as from 11 September 2026. To guide the implementation of the Convention, the Government issued Decree No. 293/2026/ND-CP dated 23 July 2026, which takes effect in Vietnam as from 11 September 2026. This Decree clearly provides that a public document of a Contracting State having accession relations with Vietnam which has been issued an Apostille certificate by the competent authority of that Contracting State shall be exempt from consular legalisation and may be used in Vietnam without any further certification procedure under the relevant law. Agencies and organizations in Vietnam may not require any further consular certification or consular legalisation procedure for a public document that has already been issued a valid Apostille certificate.

8/11/2026Read more →

Vietnam

How to Accelerate the Examination of Patent Applications in Vietnam

The 2025 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Intellectual Property (the IP Law), effective from 1 April 2026, allows an applicant to request expedited substantive examination of a Vietnamese patent application where certain conditions prescribed by the Government are satisfied. In addition, on 31 March 2026, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) issued Circular No. 10/2026/TT-BKHCN, effective from 1 April 2026, with substantive amendment on the mechanism of using search and examination results of corresponding foreign patent applications to expedite the examination of Vietnamese patent applications. Furthermore, the ASEAN Patent Examination Co-operation Plus (ASPEC+) program was officially launched on 6 April 2026. With the addition and revision of the mechanisms, applicants now have more options to expedite the examination of patent applications in Vietnam. Below is a summary of the options.

8/10/2026Read more →

Vietnam

Accelerate the Examination of Vietnamese Patent Applications by Using Search and Examination Results of Corresponding Foreign Patent Applications

The 2022 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Intellectual Property (the IP Law) introduced a provision allowing the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPVN) to use search results and substantive examination results of a patent application issued by a foreign patent office in the course of substantive examination of the corresponding patent application in Vietnam. Article 16.9 of Circular No. 23/2023/TT-BKHCN (Circular 23) guided the implementation of this provision of the IP Law as follows: substantive examination results of a foreign patent office used by IPVN in the course of substantive examination of a Vietnamese patent application (foreign results) must be issued by an authority included in a list approved by the Minister of Science and Technology (MOST) upon the proposal of IPVN. However, from the effective date of Circular 23 until now, MOST has not issued the list of foreign patent offices whose examination results IPVN may use. As a result, this provision has not been effectively applied in practice since it took effect. On 31 March 2026, MOST issued Circular No. 10/2026/TT-BKHCN, effective from 1 April 2026 (Circular 10), replacing Circular 23, which substantially amended the above provision, specifically providing that foreign results must be issued by a national or regional intellectual property authority recognized as an International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority under the PCT. With this amendment, this provision can now be applied conveniently in practice.

8/7/2026Read more →

Vietnam

Accelerate the Examination of Vietnamese Patent Applications in Certain Special Cases

8/7/2026Read more →

Vietnam

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

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.

8/6/2026Read more →

Vietnam

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

Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program for accelerating examination of patent applications between Japanese Patent Office (JPO) and Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPVN) (JP-VN PPH program) was launched in 2016 with phase 1 in the period of 2016-2018, and subsequently extended to phases 2, 3, and 4. Phase 4 of the program started from 01 April 2025 and will end on 31 March 2028. There is a maximum of 200 requests filed each year in Vietnam. Of those 200 requests, a maximum of 100 is permitted from 1 April to 30 September, with the remainder permitted from 1 October to 31 March.

8/6/2026Read more →

Vietnam

Accelerate the Examination of Vietnamese Patent Applications under ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation Program

The ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation (ASPEC) is a regional patent work-sharing program among nine participating ASEAN member states (“AMS”) including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The program was launched on 15 June 2009 aiming to accelerate the substantive examination of patent applications in participating AMS by reducing duplication on the search and examination work done, saving time and effort.

8/6/2026Read more →