Descriptive signs cannot be registered as trademark in Vietnam

Legal basis

Vietnam Intellectual Property Law 2005, as amended and supplemented in 2009, 2019, 2022.

Descriptive signs cannot be registered as trademark in Vietnam

To be protected by law, a trademark must satisfy the following conditions as prescribed by law:

• A sign that is visible in the form of letters, words, filings, images, including holograms, or a combination thereof, represented by one or more colors;
• Having the ability to distinguish the goods and services of the trademark owner from those of other subjects.

Accordingly, the mark must be distinctive. A mark is considered to be distinctive if it is made up of one or several recognizable and memorable elements or made up of many elements that combine into a recognizable and memorable whole and does not belong to the following categories: the case specified in Clause 2, Article 74 of the Intellectual Property Law.

According to Clause c, Article 74 of the Intellectual Property Law, signs are descriptive of goods and services such as signs indicating time, place, production method, type, quantity, quality, nature and composition part, use, value or other characteristics, unless the sign has acquired distinctiveness through use prior to the time of application.registering trademark then the mark as that sign is considered to be indistinguishable, those are descriptive signs cannot be trademarked in Vietnam

Example: German Technology

Japan quality

Excellent

Perfect

Good, durable

High quality service,..

Accordingly, trademarks that describe goods and services will be refused the Certificate Registering Trademark because the discriminability condition is not met and descriptive signs cannot be trademarked in Vietnam. However, there are exceptions as follows: Marks that have a descriptive element but have been used for the function of a mark and are widely known to consumers and whereby the mark has been achieving distinctiveness with respect to the goods or services concerned shall be considered distinctive. For this exception to apply, the trademark owner must provide evidence of widespread use of the mark (date of use, scope, current level of use, etc.), in that a mark is considered “used” only when such use is carried out in legitimate production, business, commercial, advertising, marketing activities) and evidence of its distinctiveness trademark for related goods and services of the mark owner. In this case, the mark shall be recognized as distinctive only when presented in the same form as in which it is continuously and commonly used in practice. Some trademarks have been successfully registered in Vietnam thanks to this exception, such as DOUBLEMINT, BABY – DRY, etc.

Procedure of trademark registration in Vietnam

Step 1: Select a brand and goods and services for the brand

The first important step to trademark registration for audio equipment, speakers is select a suitable and impressive brand

• Trademark selection: Select a trademark template that meets the protection criteria. The selected mark is not similar to other registered trademarks, well-known trademarks.
• Select a list of registered products: You need to select a list of goods and services bearing the mark according to the above instructions. Grouping of goods and services to be carried out according to the latest updated versions of the Nice International Classification of Trademarks.

Step 2: Research trademarks

To perform a trademark search, customers only need to provide Viet An Law:

• Trademark template;
• List of goods and services to research and register.

Step 3: Apply registration dossier

• After an in-depth search and the mark is judged to be registrable, the applicant will proceed to submit a registration application to trademark registration for audio equipment, speakers
• Agencies receiving and processing dossiers and collecting registration fees in Vietnam: National Office of Intellectual Property.

Step 4: Formality examniation of the application

• The time limit for formal examination of a trademark application is 1 month from the filing date.
• The NOIP will consider the application for eligibility in terms of form, label form, application owner, filing right, subheading, etc.
• If the enterprise’s application meets the conditions. The NOIP will issue a Notice of acceptance of a valid application and publish the application.
• If the enterprise’s application does not meet the conditions. The NOIP will issue a Notice of Non-acceptance of the application and request the enterprise to amend it. The application owner and the applicant’s representative shall make amendments as required. Then, proceed to submit the revised official letter to the NOIP and pay an additional fee if the group is classified incorrectly.

Step 5: Publication of trademark application

• Time limit for publication of trademark application: 02 months from the date of notification of valid application acceptance.
• Contents of application announcement include: Information about valid applications stated in the notice of acceptance of valid applications, trademark samples and a list of goods and services.

Step 6: Substantive examination of the application

Time limit for substantive examination: 09 months from the date of application publication.

Step 7: Pay the fee for granting a trademark protection title

The last step to trademark registration for audio equipment, speakers is after receiving the notice of intention to grant a protection title, the applicant shall pay the granting fee.

The above is an article about the descriptive signs cannot be registered as trademark in Vietnam of Viet An Law, so if the owner of the trademark application takes it as a trademark, it will not be granted an exclusive protection title. If you want to register a trademark, please contact Viet An Law for detailed advice!