Vietnam

Patent for invention: requires worldwide novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability. Protection term is 20 years from filing date.

Patent for utility solution (called utility model or petty patent in other countries): must not be common knowledge and requires worldwide novelty and industrial applicability but does not require an inventive step. It covers all technical fields and extends to both products and processes, as with patents for invention. The Protection term is 10 years from the filing date.

• Novelty: an invention/utility solution shall be considered novel if it has not been publicly disclosed by use, written description or any other form, inside or outside Vietnam, before the filing date or the priority date (if the application claims priority). Secret prior art [MN1] is applied to novelty assessment. Particularly, the invention/utility solution is not considered novel if it is disclosed in another patent application which has an earlier filing date or priority date but is published on or after such date.
• Inventive step: an invention shall be deemed to involve an inventive step if, based on all technical solutions already disclosed by use, written description or any other form inside or outside Vietnam, prior to the filing date or the priority date (if the application claims priority), it constitutes inventive progress and cannot be easily created by a person having ordinary skill in the art. Secret prior art is not applicable to inventive step assessment.
• Industrial applicability: an invention/utility solution shall be deemed to have industrial applicability if it is possible to carry out mass production or manufacture of the product, or repeated application of the process, that is the subject matter of the invention/utility solution, while achieving stable results.
• So far, there is no definition or guidance on common knowledge.

Extension of patent term is currently not available.

Restoration of a lapsed patent is not available.

Paris Convention, PCT, TRIPs

The deadline for filing a patent application claiming priority right is 12 months from the earliest priority date.

The time limit for entering the national phase in Vietnam is 31 months from the earliest priority date for both applications under PCT chapter I and PCT chapter II.

Vietnam applies a substantive examination system.

• Discoveries, scientific theories; mathematical methods;
• Schemes, plans, rules or methods for performing mental acts, training domestic animals, playing games, doing business; computer programs;
• Presentations of information;
• Solutions of aesthetic characteristics only;
• Plant varieties (these are protected by other non-patent mechanisms), animal varieties;
• Processes of essentially biological nature to produce plants and animals other than microbiological processes;
• Disease prevention, diagnostic and treatment methods for human or animals.

Prior art is any technical solutions that have been publicly disclosed by use or by means of a written description or any other form either inside or outside Vietnam before the filing date or the priority date (if there is priority right), as applicable, of the patent application. Secret prior art is applied to novelty assessment while it does not apply to inventive step assessment. Particularly, the invention/utility solution is not considered novel if it is disclosed in another patent application which has an earlier filing date or priority date but is published on or after such date.

Prior art includes at least the below:

• All patent applications received by IP Vietnam having the same International Patent Classification (IPC) indexes (sub-group(s) as those in the examined application and having earlier priority date (if there is priority right) or filing date than the one of the examined application (for novelty assessment) or having publication dates earlier than the filing date or the priority date of the examined application (for inventive step assessment);
• Patent applications or patents published by other organizations or countries within 25 years before the filing date or the priority date (if there is priority right) of the examined application stored in the patent database of IP Vietnam and other information sources defined by IP Vietnam. The same criteria above (IPC) and date is applied when assessment of novelty and inventive step.
• Secret patents on or before the filing date or priority date (if there is priority right) of the examined application.

IP Vietnam is obliged to carry out the search within the required resources above to determine the patentability requirements. However, it can also extend the search to the national database of science and technology or any other sources, for example, Internet, if it deems necessary for any disclosure describing the technical solution identical/similar to the invention in question.

In practice, IP Vietnam tends to rely on the search and examination results of the corresponding applications, carried out by major Patent Offices in the world, such as the USPTO, EPO, JPO, CNIPO, KIPO, etc. Therefore, prior art documents cited in the search and examination results of such offices are normally referred to by IP Vietnam.

Vietnam does not have regulations on “Duty of Disclosure”. Therefore, submission of prior art from corresponding patent applications is not mandatory.

However, under the regulations, the applicant can (proactively or at the specific written request of IP Vietnam) submit the following documents to assist the substantive examination: results of search or examination of corresponding foreign applications; copies of granted claims or patents granted for corresponding foreign applications; prior art documents of the corresponding foreign applications cited by foreign patent offices and other documents.

In practice, IP Vietnam will not require the submission of prior art documents of corresponding foreign applications or foreign patents which are in English and available online. IP Vietnam normally requests applicants to submit English translations of granted claims of foreign patents that are not in English, for example, claims of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese patents for reference in examination. Therefore, only if requested by IP Vietnam via a written notice, applicants must submit such documents within the prescribed period.

An invention/utility solution shall not be considered a loss of novelty if it was disclosed in the following cases:

• It is known to only a limited number of persons who are obliged to keep it secret.
• It is disclosed by the person entitled to file the patent application or by a person who obtained information about the invention directly or indirectly from the person entitled to file the patent application, provided that the patent application is filed in Vietnam within 12 months from the date of disclosure.
• It is published in the industrial property application or industrial property protection by an industrial property authority as a result of mistaken publication, or where the application is filed by a person ineligible to file it.

One application shall relate to only one invention or to a group of inventions that are so closely technically linked as to form a single general inventive concept.

The specification comprises the description, claims, drawings, and sequence listing (if any).

Description

The description often comprises the following elements:

Title of the invention: pointing out the claimed subject matter(s) of the invention;

Technical field of the invention: indicating the technical field to which the invention relates;

Background art: specifying the background art known to the applicant, useful for understanding, conducting patentability search and substantive examination of the invention. Documents reflecting the closest prior art should be preferably cited therein;

Summary of the invention: disclosing the invention in a manner that can be understood, including the technical problem(s) addressed by the invention, the essential features of the invention, its improvements over the prior art (if any) with reference to the background art, and the effects of the invention compared to the prior art;

Brief description of the drawings (if any): briefly describing the figures in the drawings;

Detailed description of the invention: providing at least the best mode contemplated by the inventor for implementing the invention; it is preferred to include examples in this section.

The claims establish the scope of protection of the invention. The claims should be clear and concise and fully supported by the description. The description and the drawings may be used to interpret the claims.

The claims may include independent claims and dependent claims and must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. The claims should preferably be arranged in order of protection scope so that the first claim is the broadest. All dependent claims should be grouped together with the claim or claims to which they refer to the extent practicable. A dependent form must be construed to include all the limitations of the claims incorporated by reference into the dependent claim.
Each claim must be written in a single sentence.

Form of claims

• Multiple-multiple dependent claims: acceptable
• Product claims or process/method claims: acceptable
• Product by process claims or means-plus-function claims: acceptable
• Use claims: not acceptable
• Markush type claims: acceptable
• Omnibus type claims: not acceptable. Claims must not rely on references to the description or drawings such as "as described in part…of description" or "as illustrated in figure…of the drawings" except where absolutely necessary.
• Jepson type claims: acceptable and are preferred by the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam (IP Vietnam).

The drawings are required when they are necessary for understanding the invention. The drawings must be in black and white, represented in lineless paper. Words can be used in the drawings only when they are necessary to clarify the drawings. The sheets of drawings should be numbered in consecutive Arabic numerals, starting with 1. The number of each sheet should be shown by two Arabic numerals placed on either side of an oblique line, with the first being the sheet number and the second being the total number of sheets of drawings.

The abstract is not used to interpret the scope of protection and serves solely for technical information purposes. It presents a short summary of the invention and should contain a maximum of 150 words.

Patent applications (including convention applications and national stage applications of PCT applications) will be formality examined, published, and substantively examined.

• Formality examination: 01 month from the date on which IP Vietnam received the application in due form, or the first day of the 32nd month from the earliest priority date (for PCT applications) depending on which is later.
  • if the formality examination results are positive, the application will be published.
  • if the formality examination results are negative, IP Vietnam will issue a formality Office Action. The applicant can file response/amendments within 02 months from the date of the Office Action. If the applicant’s response is proper, the application will be published. If the applicant’s response is improper, a Decision on refusal of grant of patent will be issued.
• Publication: an application passing the formality examination will be published in the Industrial Property Gazette. For PCT applications: within 01 month from the date on which the application is considered valid after formality examination. For convention application the later of: (i) in the 19th month from the filing date or earliest priority date (if there is priority), or (ii) within 01 month from the date on which the application is considered valid after formality examination.
  • deferment of publication is not available
  • early publication: yes, upon written request by the applicant: application will be published within 01 month from the date of request, or from the date on which the application is considered valid after formality examination, depending on which date is later.
• Substantive examination: 12 months from either (i) the date of request for substantive examination or (ii) the publication date, whichever is later.
  • a request for substantive examination should be filed by the 36-month deadline from the earliest priority date (or filing date if the application does not claim priority right).
  • any third party can submit a request for substantive examination to IP Vietnam.
  • if the substantive examination results are negative, IP Vietnam will issue a substantive Office Action. The applicant can file response/amendments within 03 months from the date of Office Action. IP Vietnam will issue a Notice of Allowance (if the applicant’s response is proper) or a Decision on refusal to grant a patent (if the applicant’s response is improper).
• Grant: if the substantive examination results are positive, IP Vietnam will issue a Notice of Allowance. The applicant can pay the grant fees and the 1st annuity within 02 months from the date of the Notice. IP Vietnam will grant a patent within 01 month from the date of payment of required fees.
• Overall turnaround from filing till grant: 2-3 years in practice.

Several methods below are possible to accelerate substantive examination of patent applications in Vietnam:

• Request for acceleration of substantive examination for the applications satisfying all conditions:
  • The invention is in the List of Strategic Technologies and Strategic Technology Products under the legislation on high technology, or the invention is researched and exploited for emergency situations related to security, national defence, natural disasters, and epidemics;
  • The invention has been commercially exploited;
  • An early publication request is filed at the time of application;
  • The patent application has no more than 10 claims, of which no more than 2 are independent;
  • The patent application is not a divided application or a converted application.
  • The substantive examination period is reduced to 03 months (compared with normal 12 month-period).
• Use of the substantive examination results of corresponding foreign patent applications: this method can apply if the examination results are issued by foreign offices which are national or regional intellectual property offices selected as the competent search and preliminary examination authorities under the PCT Treaty and at least one claim is determined as patentable under the foreign examination results. The period for substantive examination is reduced to 08 months.
• Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program
  • PPH program between IP Vietnam and Japan Patent Office (JPO): can apply with patentable claims from the JPO, if the JPO is the first filing office. This procedure will approximately reduce the period of substantive examination to 08-09 months. 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 are permitted from 1 April to 30 September, with the remainder permitted from 1 October to 31 March.
  • PPH program between IP Vietnam and Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO): can apply with patentable claims from the KIPO, if the KIPO is the first filing office. This procedure will approximately reduce the period of substantive examination to 08-09 months. The extended program started from 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2028 with maximum of 100 PPH requests per year.
• ASPEC (ASEAN Patent Examination Co-operation) program: can apply when there are favourable opinions from other ASPEC members (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, or Thailand) for the corresponding patent applications. The period for substantive examination is from 06 to 09 months.
• ASPEC+ program: can apply to allow Patent Offices in ASPEC+ members (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) to share the search and substantive examination results for the corresponding patent applications with other member patent offices. The period for issuance of the first Office Action is 10 to 14 months.

A voluntary amendment can be filed at filing (PCT applications) or any time during the prosecution of an application but must be filed before issuance of a Decision on grant (grant date) or Decision on refusal to grant patent.

Amendments must not go beyond the content disclosed in the original specification and must not change the nature of the subject matter stated in the application and must ensure the unity of the invention. Explanation/support for the amendments is required.

It is possible to amend the specification after issuance of Notice of Allowance, however, the application is subject to re-examination.

Request for recordal of assignment or request for recordal of change of name/address of applicant of pending application can be filed any time during the prosecution of an application but must be filed before issuance of a Decision on grant (grant date) or Decision on refusal to grant patent.

Licensing a pending application is impossible in Vietnam.

Merger or acquisition is recorded under the form of change of name and/or address of the applicant.

One or more divisional application(s) can be filed any time during prosecution of an application but must be filed before issuance of a Decision on grant (grant date) or Decision on refusal to grant patent.

Divisional application based on a previous pending divisional application if the parent application has already granted a patent: it is not clear from the IP Law and regulations whether if such divisional application is acceptable. However, in practice, IP Vietnam has been accepting divisional applications based on previous divisional applications.

Conversion of an invention application into utility solution application and vice versa is possible at any time during the prosecution of the application but before issuance of Decision on grant, or Decision on refusal to grant a patent.

It is possible to appeal against IP Vietnam’s decisions or notifications during any prosecution stage of application including filing, formality examination or substantive examination stage. Decisions or notifications that can be appealed are for example, Notification of Refusal to receiving application, Notification of acceptance or rejection of the request for amendment, assignment, Decision of refusal to grant, etc.

It is not possible to appeal IP Vietnam’s notifications that are aimed at providing information and require completion of the application, for example, Notifications of Examination Results, Notifications of Defects and Requests for Amendment/Supplementation of Documents, Notifications of Intention to Refuse Application.

First-instance appeal will be submitted to General Director of IP Vietnam. Deadline for first-instance appeal is 90 days from the date the appellant receives or becomes aware of IP Vietnam’s Decision or Notification.

Second-instance appeal will be submitted to the Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST).Deadline for filing the second appeal is 30 days from the expiry date of the term for settlement of the first-instance appeal if by that date the first-instance appeal is not resolved, or from the date the appellant receives or becomes aware of the first Appeal Settlement Decision.

Amendment is impossible during the appeal procedure.

During appeal settlement IP Vietnam or MoST can seek the opinions of independent advisory experts and advisory councils. IP Vietnam or MoST can organize direct discussion among the relevant parties with attendance of independent advisory experts and advisory councils if necessary.

While opposition and third party opinion are of the same nature and grounds, allowing a third party to submit its opinion on whether to grant a patent application, the two procedures are different:

• In opposition, a third party must submit its opinion within 06 months (or 03 months if requesting acceleration of substantive examination) from the publication date of a patent application. There are specific procedures and timelines for IP Vietnam to handle the opposition. IP Vietnam may organize a direct discussion between the two parties if necessary, and IP Vietnam must notify the third party of the substantive examination results.
• In a third party opinion procedure, a third party can submit its opinion at any time before issuance of a Decision on grant or a Decision on refusal to grant a patent. IP Vietnam is not obligated to exchange correspondence between the parties. Opinion and documents submitted by the third party to IP Vietnam serve as reference materials during IP Vietnam’s examination process. In practice, the third party may discuss the case with the examiner to learn the examiner’s view on the issue and the examination results.
  

Double-patenting issue is provided under the “first-to-file” principle of the IP Law. In particular, if various applications have been filed for identical or equivalent inventions, only one patent will be granted. The patent will be granted for the application with the earliest priority date (if there is priority right) or earliest filing date.

There is a guidance on “identical inventions”. However, there should have detailed guidance on “equivalent inventions”.

Before a patent is granted, the intellectual property rights (IPR) owner has a provisional right to the invention/utility model. Specifically, the IPR owner may send a warning letter specifying the filing date and publication date and request any unauthorized user to cease using the invention/utility model. If the user continues using such invention/utility model, then upon grant of the patent, the patent owner shall be entitled to request the user to pay compensation equivalent to the licensing fee for such invention/utility model within the corresponding scope and duration of use.

For national security control, foreign filing license is applied when inventions/utility solutions have all three circumstances as follows:

• are classified as state secrets in the technical fields that impact the national defence and security;
• created in Vietnam; and
• belong to Vietnamese individuals having residence in Vietnam or organisations established under Vietnamese laws (Vietnamese individuals having residence in Vietnam or organisations established under Vietnamese laws have the rights to file applications for such inventions/utility solutions).

To file a patent application abroad, the applicant must submit a request for obtaining foreign filing licence to either Ministry of National Defence or the Ministry of Public Security, depending on the technical fields subject to management by one of the authorities.

Annuity is payable for granted patents, there is no annuity for pending applications.

The 1st annuity: The 1st annuity is normally paid simultaneously with the payment of grant fees.

The 2nd and subsequent annuities: due date for payment of the 2nd and subsequent annuities are the anniversaries of the grant date. If the annuities are not paid, the patent will be terminated.

A Power of Attorney (POA) is required for annuity payment. If there are more than one patent owner, one POA from one of the patent owners is sufficient.

A six-month grace period is available with a surcharge of 10% government annuity for each late month. Government annuity is calculated for each year and based on number of independent claims.

Lump sum payment: in practice, IP Vietnam accepts a lump sum payment for all annuities, or for several annuities at once.

An assignment is required to be recorded at IP Vietnam. There is no deadline for requesting to record the assignment.

A license is not required to record at IP Vietnam. A license contract is valid as agreed by the parties. However, such contract is only legally effective to a third party if it is registered with IP Vietnam.

Change of name/address of patent owner can be recorded at IP Vietnam. There is no deadline for requesting to record the change. Merger or acquisition is recorded under the form of change of name and/or address of the patent owner.

Original patent is required for recordal of name/address change and assignment while it is not required for license recordal.

It is only possible to narrow the scope of protection of a patent, for example, deletion of one or more claims. Amendment by introducing more feature(s), which was/were already disclosed in the original description but not yet disclosed in the granted claims, to one or more claims to narrow the scope of protection is not allowed. It is still an open question whether amendment by introducing more feature(s) which was/were already disclosed in the granted claims to one or more claims is allowable or not?

Under the regulations, a patent owner can request IP Vietnam to correct/rectify errors in the patent. The patent owner must pay a required fee for the rectification if the error is due to its fault. If the error is caused by IP Vietnam, the patent owner is not required to pay the fee.

It is patent owner’s obligation to manufacture the protected products or use the protected processes to satisfy the requirements of national defence and security, disease prevention or treatment, nutrition of the people, or to meet other urgent social needs. When there are said needs or requirements, and the owner fails to perform such obligation, the competent authority may license the invention to others without the permission of the owner.

The patent owner is considered fulfilling their usage obligation by imported products, or products manufactured under contract by the licensee of the patent that meet the needs of national defence, security, disease prevention or treatment, nutrition of the people, or other urgent social needs.

It is not required to automatically provide evidence of use after a patent is granted.

Compulsory licenses are available in Vietnam in compliance with the TRIPS Agreement. There are general situations in which compulsory licenses may be granted, including:

• for creating dependent inventions if the dependent inventions make an important technical advance compared with the principal invention and have great economic significance, and if the owners of dependent inventions fail to reach an agreement on a patent license at reasonable commercial price and conditions from the owner of the principal invention without justifiable reason;
• for reasons of public interest;
• for failure to use the invention to meet a number of public and national needs;
• if a third party fails to negotiate a license with reasonable terms and conditions;
• the patent owner is determined to perform an act of anti-competition prohibited under the competition legislation;
• the use of the invention to meet the pharmaceutical needs for disease prevention or treatment in other countries that are eligible importing members under international treaties to which Vietnam is a party.

The patent owner has the right to request termination of a compulsory license when the grounds for compulsory licensing cease to exist and are unlikely to recur, provided that such termination shall not be prejudicial to the licensee.

Termination:

• A patent can be terminated on the following grounds:
  • Patent owner has not paid the annuities;
  • Patent owner has declared its relinquishment of the rights conferred by the patent;
  • Patent owner no longer exists.
• Time limit for requesting termination: the entire patent term.

Invalidation:

• A patent can be invalidated entirely on the following grounds:
  • The patent application was filed contrary to the regulations on security control of an invention/utility solution;
  • The patent application was directly created based on genetic resource(s) or traditional knowledge of genetic resources did not disclose or inaccurately disclosed them in the application;
  • The inventor(s) is/are not a human.
• A patent can be invalidated entirely or invalidated partially if the entire patent or certain parts of the patent do not meet the requirements, on the following grounds:
  • The applicant was neither entitled to file the application nor assigned such right;
  • The invention in the patent did not meet the patentability requirements or is contrary to the social ethics and public order and prejudicial to defence and security at the time of grant;
  • Amendment, addition of application containing the subject-matter extends beyond the scope of the subject-matter disclosed in the original application, or changes the nature of the subject-matter disclosed in the original application;
  • Insufficient disclosure to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to implement the invention;
  • Granted invention extends beyond the scope disclosed in the original specification;
  • The invention/utility solution did not meet the first-to-file principle.
• Amendment during invalidation: there is no specific regulations and there is no prohibition of amendment during nullity procedure.

Like pending applications, it is possible to appeal against IP Vietnam’s decisions or notifications during the post-grant stage. Decisions or notifications that can be appealed include, for example, notifications or decisions of refusal or acceptance of annuity/renewal, amendment of patent, termination, or invalidation of patent.

Also, it is not possible to appeal IP Vietnam’s notifications that are aimed at providing information and require completion of the application, for example, notifications of examination results, notifications of defects and requests for amendment/supplementation of documents, notifications of intention to refuse request.

The appeal settlement is the same as that for pending applications as noted above.