How to look up whether a company logo is registered or not in Vietnam

A logo is one of the ways to help a company express its business goals, create a highlight with customers, and promote the brand. Therefore, nowadays many newly established companies want to create a company logo to affirm their brand but are still wondering whether that logo has been registered or not. In the article below, Viet An Law will guide customers on how to look up whether a company logo is registered or not in Vietnam.

Legal basis

• Law on Intellectual Property 2005, as amended and supplemented in 2009, 2019, 2022.
• Decree No. 65/2023/ND-CP provides detailed regulations on industrial property, protection of industrial property rights, and management of plant varieties

What is a logo?

• A logo can be understood as a symbol made up of text and images to identify a business or organization.
• A logo is a symbol, a symbol represented by a collection of characters, images, and colors to create a sign for the purpose of identifying the brand and image of the business, contributing to building the position of the company. That business in the market of intellectual property consulting is often also known as a graphic trademark.
• From a legal perspective, a logo can be registered for intellectual property protection as a work under the copyright mechanism or as a
• Normally, registering a logo as a trademark is common and brings more benefits to the owner when trading products and services associated with that logo. Pursuant to Clause 16, Article 4 of the Intellectual Property Law, as amended and supplemented in 2022 stipulates: “A trademark is a sign used to distinguish goods and services of different organizations and individuals.” A trademark means a word or phrase, sometimes just a character or a sketched image, or a characteristic symbol of an individual or company (logo).

What does logo registration mean for a company?

• Firstly, increase brand recognition. Logos can create a distinctive mark, a strong visual association with a business. Registering a logo can help customers remember the brand and not be confused with other businesses.
• Secondly, attract customers and increase revenue. Logos with attractive and interesting designs always easily attract consumers. When the company logo is attractive and leaves an impression in the minds of customers, they are highly likely to choose the company’s products.
• Thirdly, increase competitiveness. In the competitive field, logos play an extremely important role. In the market economy era, counterfeit activities and unfair competition occur frequently. If you do not own your own identifying mark, having to bear legal risks is unavoidable.

In addition, in the case of a company logo whose copyright has been registered, the author or owner of that logo who has been granted a Copyright Registration Certificate will enjoy the following benefits:

• Right to create derivative works: the author has the right to create derivative products based on the original logo but with a new form and presentation compared to other works.
• Right to copy: the author makes or allows others to make copies of the work.
• Right to distribute originals or copies of works: the author has the exclusive right to do or allow others to use any method to sell, rent, or transfer originals or copies of works.
• Right to put real name or pseudonym on the work.
• The right to publish the work or allow others to publish the work to the public.

The purpose of looking up company logos

• Avoid infringing on industrial property rights of other subjects’ protected trademarks;
• Evaluate the protection ability of the company logo;
• Avoid unnecessary costs for researching and drafting documents if through search, the logo has explored to be registered;
• Choose a company logo that has been registered and has a valid trademark protection to sign a purchase contract and transfer the right to use that logo or trademark.

How to look up whether a company logo is registered or not in Vietnam?

Looking up whether a company logo has been registered or not will have two types of search: preliminary search or profound search. Depending on the needs of the business and the purpose of the search, choose the appropriate type of search.

Preliminary search

Step 1: Access one of the following lookup addresses:

• Trademark lookup page of the National Office of Intellectual Property: http://wipopublish.ipvietnam.gov.vn/
• Trademark lookup page of the Institute of Intellectual Property Science: https://ipplatform.gov.vn/database/nhan-hieu
• ASEAN trademark database lookup page (Asean TMView): http://www.asean-tmview.org/tmview/welcome
  
• Trademark lookup page of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): https://www.wipo.int/romarin

Step 2: Enter the company logo (brand) information you want to look up in the search brand box.

• To make search operations more effective, customers need a few more advanced search tools such as: Tools that allow skilled users to search for information about objects to be looked up by fields and keywords. selection with various operators (and; or; and not; or not) or characters (*; ?)
• Note: The above-advanced search activities will not be applicable on the trademark search page of the Vietnam National Office of Intellectual Property.

Step 3: Enter image classification information in the image classification box (the logo belongs to the image label type).

Step 4: Enter good/service group information in the good /service group box and information about the good/service name.

• When performing a lookup activity, customers need to clearly understand what type of goods their company sells and the good /service name of those goods.
• Then, look up that type of product/service on the Nix international classification of goods/services.
• The result received is which product/service the company is trading belongs to in the Nice classification table to enter into the lookup box.

Note:

• The preliminary search activity will be more effective if the information customers fill in the search titles is more specific, complete, and accurate.
• This form of preliminary lookup can be done by customers themselves, so there is no charge. This is also the biggest advantage of this form of preliminary lookup.
• However, there are also disadvantages to the preliminary search form: it is not 100% accurate because there will be trademarks that are awaiting examination or have not yet had information entered on the website of the NOIP.

Profound lookup

Because the preliminary search method is not 100% accurate, businesses can choose a profound search method. It can be understood that a profound search is a form of search performed by professionals working at competent agencies in examinating/granting protection titles.

For trademarks that are highly confusing and difficult to distinguish, businesses should choose a profound search through Law Firms.

• Step 1: Send the logo sample you need to look up to Viet An Law via hotline, zalo, or directly.
• Step 2: Viet An Law will send information back to your company within 3-5 days of the search results.

How to look up whether a company logo is copyrighted or not?

Step 1. Access the search address of the Copyright Office: http://cov.gov.vn/tra-cuu-nien-giam

Step 2: Enter information related to the search work

• Registration period
• Information about the work: work name, certificate number
• Information about the author: full name
• Information about the owner: full name

Step 3: Select “Filter” to get the results you want to look up

Note:

• Copyright search activities will be more effective if the information customers fill in the search titles is more specific, complete, and accurate.
• The advantage of this form of lookup is that customers can do it themselves, so there is no cost.

Above is the content of how to look up whether a company logo is registered or not in Vietnam that Viet An Law informs you. Industrial property representative – Viet An Law Firm is ready to provide services related to industrial property registration to support you, please contact us to receive the best advice.