How to register trademark in Vietnam?

Steps to conduct Trademark Search and Trademark Registration. In order to support businesses and individuals to establish trademark rights for their goods and services before marketing them as quickly and professionally as possible. Viet An Intellectual property firm provides guidelines of the process of searching and registering trademarks for goods and services  as follows:

Step 1: Look up the trademark

Customers send a sample of the trademark and a list of branded products and services to Viet An Law Firm for a preliminary lookup and evaluation of trademark registration ability.

Free preliminary search: Viet An Law will conduct a free preliminary search for customers to assess the ability of the trademark registration within 01 day from the date the customer provided the information.

After the preliminary search, if it is likely that the trademark does not have the ability to register, Viet An Law Firm will consult and provide the relevant references to find a solution for the trademark to be granted a certificate at later.

Intensive look up Service before filing a Trademark Application

In case, after the preliminary examination of the trademark and it is likely to be registered, it is possible to search in depth through Vietnamese and international data to appraise the highest possibility of granting a protection title to the trademark. This is not a mandatory step, but should be taken to increase the trademark registration and save time.

Intensive search is a completely voluntary procedure of the applicant. However, this procedure should be conducted as this is the first and important step for a preliminary assessment of whether a trademark should apply for protection or not.

However, the trademark search is for reference only and is not a basis for granting or not granting a certificate (this partly related to the priority right of trademark registration as described above).

Dossiers for trademark lookup customers need to prepare: 03 trademark samples with sizes larger than 3 × 3 cm, not exceeding 8 × 8 cm.

Intensive trademark search procedure through Viet An Law Firm – Ip Lawyers takes 1-3 working days.

Trademark search results: Notice of trademark search results

Step 2: Submission of trademark registration and follow up the trademark registration process at the National Office of Intellectual Property

Stage 1: Submit a trademark registration declaration (filing a trademark registration application):

After an in-depth lookup and a mark that is considered likely to be registered, Viet An – Vietnam Intellectual Property Representative  will conduct a trademark registration at the National Office of Intellectual Property for your application.

The trademark registration documents that customers need to prepare

• Power of Attorney (attached form)
• 01 trademark sample (not smaller than 3 × 3 cm, not exceeding 8 × 8 cm)
• List of products and services intended for trademark registration.
• Viet An Law will prepare the remaining documents according to the regulations for the trademark application.

In addition to the above-required documents, when a customer registers a collective mark, a certification mark… customer must provide additional documents to Viet An Law Firm as follows:

• Regulation on using collective mark/ certification mark;
• Explanatory statement on the particular (or specific) nature and quality of the trademarked product (if the registered trademark is a collective trademark used for a product of a particular nature or a certification mark for the quatity of the product or a trademark certifying a geographical origin);
• Map showing territory (if the registered trademark is a trademark certifying the geographical origin of the product).

The Agency receiving and processing trademark registration dossiers in Vietnam: Vietnam National Office of Intellectual Property.

Results of Stage 1: The Declaration of trademark registration

Stage 2: Examining the form of Trademark Registration Applications

The time limit for formality examination of trademark registration applications is 1 month from the filing date.

• The National Office of Intellectual Property will consider the application with eligibility in terms of form, label pattern, owner of the application, the right to file applications, classification, etc.
• If the application of enterprise satisfies the conditions, the National Office of Intellectual Property will notify the acceptance of the valid application and publish it.
• If the application of the enterprise does not meet the conditions, the NOIP will issue a Notice of non-acceptance of the application and request the enterprise to amend. Enterprises make modifications as required and submit the amended documents to the National Office of Intellectual Property.

Results of Stage 2 of the trademark application: Accepting a valid application

Time limit for publication of trademark registration applications: 02 months from the date of receipt of the notice of acceptance of valid application.

The content of publication of a trademark registration application is the information related to a valid application stated in the notice of acceptance of the valid application, trademark sample and attached list of goods and services.

Stage 3: Substantive Examination of Trademark Registration Applications:

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

• The National Office of Intellectual Property shall examine the conditions for registering a trademark, thereby evaluating the possibility of granting a certificate for the trademark registered by the enterprise. If the trademark registration application satisfies all conditions, the NOIP shall issue a notice of intention to grant a trademark to the mark already registered by the enterprise.
• If the trademark registration application does not meet the conditions, the NOIP issues a notice not to grant a certificate for the trademark registered by the enterprise. The enterprise shall consider and send a written response to the decision of the NOIP, and at the same time provide grounds for granting a trademark protection certificate to the trademark of the enterprise.

Result of Stage 3: Notice of intention to grant a trademark protection title and pay a licensing fee

Stage 4: Receipt of Certificate of Trademark Registration and hand over to customers

Result of stage 4: Certificate of Trademark Registration

After the decision to grant the Certificate, Viet An Law Firm shall notice the Business to pay the granting fee for the Cerificate and getting the Trademark Protection Certificate and deliver to the customer.

Time limit for granting Protection Title: 02-03 months from the date of paying fees for granting the Certificate.

According to the experience of Viet An Law Firm, the Trademark Registration period will usually last about 12-18 months from the date of accepting a valid application.