Intellectual Property (IP) Complaint Service in Vietnam

Complaints related to the establishment of intellectual property rights aim to ensure that the clients’s intellectual property rights are protected by the current legal regulations against decisions made by competent state authorities. To support clients in effectively carrying out the complaint procedure, in the article below, Viet An Law Firm will provide clients with legal information about our intellectual property (IP) complaint service in Vietnam.

Viet An Law Firm’s services in intellectual property complaint consultation

According to the regulations of the Intellectual Property Law and relevant laws, the applicant, organizations, and individuals having rights and interests that are directly relevant to the decision or notice relevant to handling of trademark registration applications issued by the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam are entitled to file complaints with the industrial property right authority or initiate a lawsuit at the Court.

Viet An Law Firm’s intellectual property (IP) complaint service in Vietnam

The organizations and individuals are entitled to file complaints the official decision or notice issued by the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam related to industrial property procedures in accordance with relevant regulations. When using Viet An Law Firm’s services, clients will be provided with three specific services.

Complaints against Decision to refuse to grant an intellectual property protection title

Complaints against decisions to refuse to grant intellectual property protection titles will be made after the applicant receives the Decision to refuse to grant a protection title within the prescribed time. If the refusal is deemed unjust or unfounded, clients can contact Viet An Law Firm to carry out the complaint procedure accurately. Specifically, Viet An Law Firm will provide legal grounds to demonstrate that the refusal of the application/issuance of protection title by the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam is baseless.

Opposition to Applications for intellectual property protection title

According to the regulations of the Intellectual Property Law, from the date an application for registration of industrial property is published in the Official Gazette of Industrial Property up until prior to the date of issuance of a decision on the grant of a protection title, any third party shall have the right to express an opinion to the competent State administrative authority for industrial property rights on the grant or refusal to grant a protection title for such application. Therefore, if clients discover an application for the protection title of an intellectual property similar to their own registered intellectual property, they have the right to oppose it. Viet An Law Firm, upon client authorization, will support in preparing documents, including a written statement from the opposition, along with materials or sources to substantiate the objection.

Opposition to the Decision to grant an intellectual property protection title to the competent State authority

Before the date of granting of the protection title, within certain time limits, any third party is entitled to raise objections to the decision to grant the protection title.

• 9 months from the publication date of the invention registration application;
• 4 months from the publication date of the industrial design registration application;
• 5 months from the publication date of the mark registration application;
• 3 months from the publication date of the geographical indications registration application.

Thus, when using Viet An Law’s services, we will represent clients in the opposition procedure.

Intellectual property complaint service content

Individuals and organizations using the services of Viet An Law Firm will receive assistance with the steps in the complaint procedure.

Checking the complaint conditions

To have a valid basis for a complaint and to ensure success, Viet An Law Firm will determine the conditions upon the client’s request.

Statute of limitation for making a complaint

Individuals and organizations have the right to file complaints, but they must do so within a time limit:

• The statute of limitation for making a complaint is 90 days from the date the decision to refuse the grant of the intellectual property protection title is issued.
• The statute of limitation for making a second-time complaint is within 30 days after the expiration of the complaint settlement time limit, if a first-time complaint remains unsettled, or after receiving a first-time complaint settlement decision. For deep-lying or remote areas with difficult travel conditions, this time limit may be prolonged but must not exceed 45 days.

Exceptions: In cases where the complainant is unable to exercise their right to file a complaint within the statute of limitations due to illness, natural disaster, enemy sabotage, business trip, studying in a distant place, or other objective obstacles, the period during which such obstacles existed shall not be included in the limitation period for complaints, provided the complainant can provide evidence of the obstacles.

Complaint subject

Individuals and organizations have the right to file complaints against the following decisions and notifications:

• Notifications related to the following contents:
  • Notifications of application rejection;
  • Notifications of the maintenance of protection title validity, decisions to reject the maintenance of protection title validity;
  • Notifications of acceptance or rejection of requests for amendments to applications/application conversion/changes to applicants/application withdrawal;
  • Notifications of rejection of termination of protection title validity.
• Decisions related to the following contents:
  • Decisions on valid application acceptance/application rejection;
  • Decisions on the protection title issuance/rejection;
  • Decisions on protection acceptance/rejection of internationally registered industrial designs/internationally registered marks;
  • Decisions on issuance/rejection of protection title copies, decisions on re-issuance/rejection of protection titles;
  • Decisions on maintenance/rejection of the maintenance of protection title validity;
  • Decisions on amendments to protection titles, decisions to reject requests for amendments to protection titles;
  • Decisions to partly or wholly terminate protection title validity;
  • Decisions on and notifications of the processing of applications for the termination of the validity of internationally registered marks;
  • Decisions on and notifications of the processing of applications for the termination of the validity of internationally registered industrial designs;
  • Administrative decisions concerning industrial property representatives, industrial property appraisal, and transfer of industrial property rights;
  • Decisions on settlement of first-time complaints of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam.

Assisting to reprepare the complaint dossier

In order to provide a valid basis for preparing the complaint dossier, and drafting the complaint application in compliance with legal regulations, complainants must provide the following information and documents:

• Date of the complaint application; Name of the application;
• The individual or agency responsible for resolving the complaint (determined based on the decision-maker);
• Complainant’s information (full name, occupation, gender, residential address, contact phone number, and other personal details);
• Information about the party being complained against;
• Subject of the complaint: Decision/notification number, date of issuance, details of the decision/notification;
• Case details; request for review, demands, and commitments of the complainant;

Note, that after Viet An Law Firm drafts the complaint form, the form must be signed or fingerprinted by the the complainant.

• A copy of the initial complaint resolution decision (for second complaints);
• Power of attorney for Viet An Law Firm;
• A statement explaining the reasons for the complaint and evidence supporting the complaint’s claims;
• Complaint content: clearly state and elaborate in detail (with evidence regarding the illegal aspects of the decision being complained about);
• Copies of decisions or notifications subject to complaints of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam and copies of industrial property registration applications that are the subject matters of such decisions or notifications (in case of submitting complaint applications for the second time) or documents guiding the information on the mentioned documents;
• A copy of the payment receipt for fees (if the fees are paid by postal services or directly to the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam account).

Notes:

• If the documents are in a foreign language, Viet An Law will assist with the translation into Vietnamese.
• For documents signed by individuals or organizations without a seal, Viet An Law will assist with the notarization process to validate the signature.
• In cases where evidence consists of media (publications, videos,…), the origin, release date, or publication time of the materials must be specified.
• If the evidence is physical objects, detailed descriptions and analysis must be provided to establish their relevance to the complaint.

Representation for applying complaint dossier

When using Viet An Law Firm’s services, we will represent clients in applying the complaint dossier to the competent authorities either directly or via postal services to:

• The Intellectual Property Office headquarters in Ha Noi. Address: 386 Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan Trung, Thanh Xuan, Ha Noi (Contact phone: 024.3858 3069)
• 02 Văn phòng đại diện của Cục tại TP. Hồ Chí Minh và Đà Nẵng.

Receipt and response representation

• During the resolution process, the Intellectual Property Office checks the application according to the formal requirements (complaint reason, the decision being complained about, statute of limitation to complaint, complainant, and interested parties) and will notify in writing. Viet An Law Firm, as the authorized representative, will receive the acceptance/rejection notice. If not accepted, Viet An Law will amend the documents based on the reasons specified in the notice.
• Besides, we will assist in researching arguments and evidence from parties with related rights and interests to supplement the dossiers (if necessary).
• We will receive the complaint resolution decision and forward it to the requesting party.
• We will prepare the documents and carry out the second complaint procedure (if requested).

Above is the advice of Viet An Law on the issue about intellectual property (IP) complaint service in Vietnam. Clients who have related questions or need legal support, please contact Viet An Law Firm for the best support!