Confidential patent registration in Vietnam

The regulation on confidential inventions was first recognized in the revised Intellectual Property Law in 2022. Accordingly, a confidential invention is an invention identified by a competent state agency asstate secret according to the law on protection of state secrets (According to Clause 12a, Article 4 of the Intellectual Property Law).

Criteria for determining confidential inventions in Vietnam

Confidential inventions are closely related to state secrets. Accordingly, it is necessary to define state secrets in secret inventions. Therefore, a secret invention is a state secret with important information which is determined by the head of a competent agency or organization according to the provisions of law, which has not been made public, if it is lost, it may cause harm to the interests of the nation.

Security control for applying confidential patent registration abroad

Given the importance of secret inventions and related to state secrets, the revised Law on Intellectual Property of 2022 has added detailed regulations on security control for inventions before filing for registration abroad.

Confidential inventions must be subject to security control before being filed abroad if the following four factors are satisfied at the same time:

• Inventions in technical fields that affect national defense and security;
• Created in Vietnam;
• Belongs to registration rights of individuals who are Vietnamese citizens and permanently reside in Vietnam or of organizations established under Vietnamese law;
• Patent application has been filed in Vietnam.

Procedure of confidential patent registration in Vietnam

• The Government guides in detail the procedures for confidential patent registration.
• From now on, the Government has not issued a Decree guiding the revised Intellectual Property Law in 2022. Viet An Law will update information as soon as there is a Decree which guides the procedure for confidential patent registration in Vietnam. Accordingly, secret inventions still need to wait for a while to have a basis for implementing the procedure in practice.

Clients have demand for confidential patent registration in Vietnam, please contact Viet An Law Firm for the most effective advice and guidance!