Patenting Your Electrical Invention in Vietnam

Patenting an invention is one of the key steps to protect intellectual property for breakthrough inventions in all fields, including electrical engineering. Successfully registering a patent for an electrical product grants clients the exclusive right to exploit, produce, and distribute the product for a specified period, thereby preventing infringements. Below, Viet An Law will provide clients with the necessary information on patenting their electrical inventions in Vietnam.

Conditions for Patenting your electrical invention in Vietnam

Conditions for Patenting your electrical invention in Vietnam

According to the current Intellectual Property Law, an invention is a technical solution in the form of a product or process that solves a specific problem by applying natural laws. An invention is protected by a Patent for Invention or a utility solution. To be protected by a Patent for Invention, the product must meet the following conditions:

• Novelty: The invention has never been publicly disclosed domestically or internationally before the filing date or the priority date (in case the patent application enjoys priority). The novelty of the invention is understood as being absolutely new at the world level, not just limited to the national level.
• Inventive step: The invention must be an inventive step, which cannot be easily created by a person with average knowledge in the relevant technical field.
• Capable of industrial application: The invention can be used to manufacture, mass-produce products, or repeatedly apply the process that is the subject of the invention and obtain stable results.

The invention is protected in the form of a utility solution patent if it is not common knowledge and meets the following conditions:

• Novelty;
• Capable of industrial application.

Benefits of patenting your electrical invention

• A patent gives you exclusive ownership of your invention for a certain period of time.
• Successfully registering a patent helps protect the invention from unauthorized copying.
• A patent helps affirm and enhance the value and position of the patent owner.
• Encourages and promotes businesses to create, innovate, and improve product quality

Subjects eligible for registration of electrical product patents

According to Clause 1, Article 86 of the 2005 Intellectual Property Law, amended and supplemented in 2009, 2019, and 2022, subjects eligible for registration of electrical engineering product patents include:

• Authors who create inventions with their own efforts and expenses.
• Organizations and individuals investing funds and material means for authors in the form of assigning work or hiring work; organizations and individuals assigned to manage genetic resources provide genetic resources and traditional knowledge about genetic resources according to contracts for access to genetic resources and benefit sharing, except in cases where the parties have other agreements or where the invention is the result of a scientific and technological task using the state budget.

In case many organizations or individuals jointly create or invest in creating an invention, those organizations or individuals all have the right to register, and that right to register can only be exercised if all of those organizations or individuals agree. Organizations or individuals with the right to register as prescribed have the right to transfer the right to register to other organizations or individuals in the form of a written contract, to inherit or inherit according to the provisions of law, including cases where an application for registration has been submitted.

Classification of electrical product inventions when registering inventions according to the provisions of the International Patent Classification (IPC)

According to Notice No. 4031/TB-SHTT dated December 26, 2024, of the National Office of Intellectual Property, from January 1, 2025, the International Patent Classification (according to the Strasbourg Agreement on International Patent Classification, abbreviated as IPC) version 2025.01 will be officially applied in Vietnam.

According to the provisions of Appendix I – Part II of Decree No. 65/2023/ND-CP, the applicant must state the classification index of the technical solution to be protected according to the IPC Classification Table version 2025.01 in the “International Patent Classification” section in the application form from January 1, 2025. If the applicant does not classify or classifies incorrectly, the Intellectual Property Office will classify, and the applicant must pay the classification fee as prescribed.

Electrical product inventions are regulated in group H according to the IPC Classification Table, specifically as follows:

• • Group H01: Basic electrical elements and components (electrical cables, electric wires, resistors, magnets, capacitors, electrical switches, incandescent lamps, semiconductor devices, antennas, line connectors, devices using forced radiation,…)
  • Group H02: Production, transformation, and distribution of electrical energy (distribution equipment, transformer stations, or switching equipment for distributing electrical energy, arrangement of protection schemes in case of incidents, electrical energy storage systems,…)
  • Group H03: General electronic diagrams (methods and devices for modulation, amplifiers, amplification control, impedance networks, resonant circuit tuning,…)
  • Group H04: Electrical information technology (live transmission, radio transmission, secret communications, digital information transmission, image transmission, selective devices, loudspeakers, stereo systems,…)
  • Group H05: Special fields of electrical engineering not covered in other classes (electrostatic heating, electrostatics, natural sources of electricity, Plasma technology, printed circuits,…)

Application for patent registration of electrical products

Chemical product patent registration file in Vietnam

Procedures for Patenting your electrical invention in Vietnam

Step 1: Submitting the application

The applicant can apply directly or by post to the headquarters of the National Office of Intellectual Property in Hanoi or the 2 representative offices of the Office in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

Step 2: Competent authority receiving the application

• • In case the application is valid, the National Office of Intellectual Property issues a decision to accept the valid application.
  • In case the application is invalid, the National Office of Intellectual Property issues a notice of intended refusal to accept the application, stating the reasons and shortcomings that may cause the application to be refused, and setting a 2-month deadline for the applicant to comment or correct the shortcomings.

Note: If the applicant fails to correct the errors or corrects the errors unsatisfactorily, or does not make any objections, or the objections are not valid, the Intellectual Property Office shall issue a decision to refuse to accept the application.

Step 3: Publication of the application

After a decision to accept the valid application is made, the application will be published in the Industrial Property Gazette.

Step 4: Application Examination

• • Conducted when there is a request for substantive examination.
  • Assess the protection ability of the subject matter stated in the application according to the protection conditions, thereby determining the corresponding scope of protection.

Step 5: Decision to grant/refuse to grant a protection certificate

• • If the subject matter stated in the application does not meet the protection requirements, the Intellectual Property Office shall decide to refuse to grant a protection certificate.
  • If the subject matter stated in the application meets the protection requirements, and the applicant pays the fees in full and on time, the Intellectual Property Office shall decide to grant a protection certificate, record it in the National Register of Inventions, and publish it in the Industrial Property Gazette.

Above is all the content related to patenting your electrical invention in Vietnam at Viet An Law. If clients need legal advice, please contact us for timely support!