Duong & Tran Intellectual Property

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

8/7/2026

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.

Foreign results comprise one of the following documents:

  • A search report, examination report, or notice of examination results; or
  • A published patent or protection title.

Conditions for Requesting the Use of Foreign Results to Accelerate the Substantive Examination of a Patent Application in Vietnam

  • IPVN has not yet issued a notice of substantive examination results for the Vietnamese application;
  • The 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, as mentioned above;
  • In the above foreign results, at least one claim has been assessed as meeting the patentability requirements;
  • The claims of the Vietnamese application, whether as originally filed or as amended, must be identical to the claims assessed as meeting the patentability requirements in the above foreign results.

Required Documents

  • A request for the use of foreign results (in the prescribed form);
  • A copy of the foreign results and a Vietnamese translation thereof;
  • The claims assessed by the foreign patent office as meeting the patentability requirements, together with a Vietnamese translation thereof;
  • An amended specification and a detailed explanation of the amendments and supplements as compared with the originally filed specification (if amended);
  • Cited documents as mentioned in the foreign results (upon request);

Fees

Currently, there is no official fee for requesting to use foreign results.

Examination Procedure and Shortened Examination Timeline upon Request to Use Foreign Results

The statutory time limit for substantive examination of a patent application is 12 months from the date of filing the request for substantive examination or from the publication date of the application, whichever is later (the substantive examination commencement date). Where a request to use foreign results is made that satisfies the conditions mentioned above, IPVN shall issue a notice of substantive examination results for the Vietnamese application within 8 months from the date of receipt of the applicant’s request.

Any amendment or supplementation of the patent application during the above 8-month period that causes any of the above conditions to no longer be satisfied shall result in that patent application being examined under the normal procedure.

Where any of the above conditions is not satisfied, IPVN shall notify its refusal of the request to use foreign results, and the patent application shall be examined under the normal procedure.

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