Conditions for copyright protection in Vietnam

Intellectual products play an increasingly important role. Thus, the awareness of individuals and organizations in protecting copyright and author-related rights is significantly increasing. However, in reality, many clients are having difficulty determining copyright protection conditions in Vietnam. In this article, Viet An Law Firm would like to present the following article on conditions for copyright protection in Vietnam.

Legal basis

• Law on Intellectual Property 2005, as amended and supplemented in 2009, 2019, 2022.
• Decree No. 17/2023/ND-CP guiding the Intellectual Property Law on copyright and related rights.

What is copyright protection in Vietnam?

Along with the development of laws in countries around the world on intellectual property, the term copyright is increasingly viewed from a broader perspective. Although there are differences between the regulations of countries around the world on how to define copyright, it can be understood that copyright is a type of legitimate right of creators, thereby encouraging people to participate in activities in the fields of culture, art, and science.

Copyright protection is understood as the State’s guarantee of works so that those works are not infringed or damaged by others. Through legal regulations to determine the rights of subjects to works, identify acts considered to be infringing as well as establish methods to protect the rights of authors.

Conditions for copyright protection in Vietnam

Organizations and individuals whose works are protected by copyright

According to the provisions of Article 13 of the Intellectual Property Law:

• Organizations and individuals whose works are protected by copyright include the person directly creating the work and the copyright owner specified in Articles 37 to 42 of the Intellectual Property Law.
• Authors and copyright owners include:
• Vietnamese organizations and individuals;
• Foreign organizations and individuals whose works are published for the first time in Vietnam but have not been published in any other country or are published simultaneously in Vietnam within thirty (30) days from the date of the work that is published for the first time in another country;
• Foreign organizations and individuals whose works are protected in Vietnam under international copyright treaties to which Vietnam is a member.

The work belongs to the types of works protected by copyright

The types of works protected by copyright are specifically stipulated in Article 14 of the Intellectual Property Law, which includes two main groups of conditions: (1) original works, and (2) derivative works. It should be noted that both of these groups must satisfy the condition “must be directly created by the author using his or her intellectual labor and not copied from the works of others”.

Protected literary, artistic, and scientific works:

• Literary and scientific works, textbooks, course books, and other works expressed in writing or other characters, including:
• Literary, scientific, and other works expressed in written form include: Novels, medium stories, short stories, memoirs, essays, memoirs; poetry, epic songs; script; cultural research works, literature, art, science, and other articles;
• Textbooks are published works that specify the requirements of the general education program; approved by the Minister of Education and Training, allowing use as official teaching materials in general education establishments;
• Curriculum is the main teaching, learning, and research document whose content is consistent with the training and retraining program approved, selected, or approved by the head of the higher education institution or vocational education institution, competent state management agency approves according to the provisions of law;
• Works expressed in other characters: are works expressed in braille for the blind, shorthand symbols, and similar symbols instead of writing that individuals and organizations can understand and be copied in many different formats.
• Lectures, speeches, and other talks: are works expressed in spoken language and must be shaped in a certain material form.
• Journalistic work: is a work with independent content and complete structure, including the following genres: Reportage, notes, reports, interviews, reflections, investigations, comments, editorials, essays, journalism, and other types of journalism to be published or broadcast on print, audio, visual, electronic or other media.
• A musical work is a work expressed in the form of musical notes in a score or other musical characters regardless of whether it is performed or not.
• Theatrical works: are works of the performing arts type, including Cheo, opera, cai luong, dance, puppetry, contemporary dance, ballet, spoken drama, opera, folk opera, physical drama, musicals, circus, comedy, vaudeville, and other performing arts.
• Cinematic works and works created by similar methods are works with content, expressed by continuous moving images or images created by technical and technological devices; with or without sound and other effects according to the principles of cinematic language. Static images taken from a cinematographic work are part of that cinematographic work.

Note: Cinematographic works do not include video recordings to disseminate news on radio, television, or cyberspace services; performing arts programs, video games; or a visual recording of the activities of one or more people, depicting actual events, situations, or programs.

• Aesthetic work is a work expressed by lines, colors, shapes, and layouts, including:
• Painting: Lacquer painting, oil painting, silk, gouache, watercolor, do paper and other materials;
• Graphics: Wood engraving, metal engraving, rubber engraving, plaster engraving, mono-printing, stone printing, screen printing, promotional paintings, graphic design and other materials;
• Sculpture: Statues, monuments, reliefs, monuments, symbolic blocks;
• Installation art and other forms of contemporary artistic expression;
• Paintings, sculptures, installations, and other forms of contemporary art exist in unique form. Graphic works may be represented up to the 50th edition, numbered sequentially, and signed by the author;
• A work of applied art is a work expressed by lines, colors, shapes, and layouts with useful features, possibly attached to a useful object, produced manually or industrially including graphic design (a form of expression of logos, identifiers, and product packaging; a form of expression of characters); Fashion Designer; Artistic design associated with product styling; Interior design, interior and exterior decoration with artistic features. Works of applied art are expressed in the form of artistic product designs that cannot be easily created by people with average knowledge in the respective field and do not include external designs of the product required to perform the product’s function.
• A photographic work is a work that represents an objective image of the world on a light-catching material or on a medium on which the image is created, or can be created by chemical, electronic, or technical methods. other techniques. Photographic works may or may not be captioned.
• Architectural works are works of the architectural type, including:
• Architectural design drawings of buildings or combinations of buildings, interiors, and landscapes;
• Maps, diagrams, maps, and drawings specified in Point k, Clause 1, Article 14 of the Intellectual Property Law include maps, diagrams, maps, and drawings related to terrain and types of science and architecture works.
• Literary and folk artworks include:
• Literary and folk artworks are forms of verbal art;
• Literary and folk artworks are performing arts such as cheo, tuong, cai luong, puppetry, singing, folk songs, and musical melodies; dances, folk dances, plays, folk games, folk festivals, village festivals, and other forms of folk rituals.
• Computer programs and data collection.

Derivative works

A work created based on one or more existing products, including:

• Translated works;
• Adaptationworks;
• Editing works;
• Notation works;
• Selection works;
• Modification works;
• Arrangement work;
• Other types of adaption.

Derivative works are protected only if without prejudice to the copyright of the original work used to create the derivative work.

Works registered for protection do not fall within the scope of copyright protection

Works that want to be protected by copyright must ensure that they do not fall within the scope of copyright protection specified in Article 15 of the Intellectual Property Law, divided into 3 groups of subjects, specifically as follows:

• Pure current news is short daily press information, small news, and real data, only for reporting purposes, not creative.
• Legal documents, administrative documents, other documents in the judicial field, and official translations of those documents.
• Processes, systems, operating methods, concepts, principles, and data are understood as follows:
• Process is the order that must be followed to carry out work;
• A system is a collection of many elements and units of the same type or function, closely related or interconnected, forming a unified whole;
• Method is a way of researching and reviewing phenomena of nature and social life;
• Concepts are thoughts that reflect in general form the objects and phenomena of reality and the relationships between them;
• Principles are basic laws of a general nature, governing a series of phenomena, are important initial ideas or theories, and are considered a starting point for the construction of other theories.

Clients who need advice on conditions for copyright protection in Vietnam, please get in touch with Viet An Law Firm for the best support.