Cancellation of a patent in Vietnam

In the economic integration trend, patent protection is very important for the development and progress of humanity. Patent encourages continued innovation through intellectual property laws granting patent owners exclusive rights to their inventions for a certain period. Regarding this issue, Viet An Law Firm has compiled legal issues on the cancellation of a patent in Vietnam to provide useful information for customers.

Legal basis

• Intellectual Property Law 2005, as amended and supplemented 2009, 2019, 2022;

What is a patent?

Patent protection title concept

Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law does not define the “Patent” but only stipulates that inventions are protected in the form of patents if they meet the legal conditions. However, in the simplest terms, a patent is a certificate issued by a competent state agency to the inventor, which includes the exclusive rights that the inventor has enjoyed for some time.

A patent is an exclusive right granted to protect an invention. A patent gives the owner the exclusive right to prohibit others from commercially exploiting the invention for a specified period in exchange for disclosing the patent information to the public.

Content of patent protection title

A patent contains the name of the invention owner. A person who is not the patent owner or is not a person authorized by the patent owner to use the invention cannot infringe. rights intentionally or unintentionally, and vice versa, the inventor must publicly disclose information related to his or her invention by the law.

The patent owner has the right to prohibit others from producing, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the protected invention without the permission of the holder of the exclusive right to use the invention and can claim anyone in court who commercially exploits a protected invention without their permission.

Characteristics of patents

• Patents must be granted by the state.

In Vietnam, the agency competent to grant patents is the National Office of Intellectual Property. This is a patent registration certificate issued by a state agency that records the rights of the author and patent owner to his or her invention. Based on that, the inventor and invention owner will have personal rights and property rights according to the provisions of the law.

• A patent records the patent owner’s right to use an invention for a certain period.

Depending on the law of each country, the validity period of a patent may be different, usually 20 years from the time of filing the application. The reason for this regulation is that inventions exist and gradually decrease in value as humanity progresses. The owner of a patent has the right to exploit the invention for a reasonable period sufficient to recoup the costs of creating the invention. After the protection term expires, the invention belongs to society to create conditions for new creations to be created.

Cases of cancellation of a patent in Vietnam

Cancel the entire validity of the patent

Under Clause 1, Article 96 of the Intellectual Property Law, the entire validity of a patent will be canceled in the following cases:

The patent application was filed contrary to the security control regulations for a patent

This case involves a patent application not complying with the security regulations stipulated in Article 89a of the Intellectual Property Law. Specifically, regulations on security control of inventions before filing applications for registration abroad are recorded as follows:

“Inventions in technical fields that affect national defense and security, created in Vietnam and the registration of which is the right of a Vietnamese citizen who resides in Vietnam or an organization established under Vietnam’s Law may only be filed for invention registration overseas if the invention registration has been filed in Vietnam in order to undergo security control.”

Security here can be related to intellectual property rights and information security. If the proposed invention has the potential to threaten national security or violates regulations on confidentiality in the field of security and defense, the patent protection certificate may be canceled to ensure national safety.

Patent application for an invention that is directly created based on genetic resources or traditional knowledge about genetic resources but does not disclose or incorrectly discloses the origin of genetic resources or traditional knowledge about genetic resources contained in the application

This case involves failure to fully disclose information about the origin of the invention or providing inaccurate information. Inventions based on genetic resources and traditional knowledge about genetic resources often need to comply with regulations on the management and protection of genetic resources. If the application does not comply with these regulations or provides inaccurate information, the patent may be canceled to ensure transparency and compliance with the law.

All of these cases highlight the importance of complying with the law and ensuring transparency in patent and trademark registration processes. Cancellation of protection certificates in these cases is an important measure to protect consumer rights, national security, and compliance with regulations on genetic resources and traditional knowledge.

Cancellation of all or part of the validity of a patent

In addition to the cases that cause a patent to be completely invalidated according to Clause 1, Article 96 of the Intellectual Property Law, Clause 2, Article 96 recognizes cases in which a patent may be canceled. partially or completely invalidated. Those cases include:

• The applicant for registration does not have the right to register and may not be assigned the right to register the invention by the person who has the right to register.
• The invention does not meet the protection conditions under the Intellectual Property Law.
• Amending or supplementing a patent application expands the scope of the subject matter disclosed or stated in the application or changes the nature of the subject matter requested for registration stated in the application;
• The invention is not fully disclosed to the extent that a person with average knowledge of the relevant technical field can carry out the invention;
• The patented invention exceeds the scope disclosed in the original description of the patent application;
• The invention does not meet the first-to-file

Above is a detailed article on the issue of cancellation of a patent in Vietnam. If you have any difficulties related to intellectual property law, please contact Viet An Law Firm for detailed advice!