Amendment of trademark applications in Vietnam

Viet An Law – Vietnam Intellectual property Firm provide the trademark registration and trademark renewal services in Vietnam, would like to introduce for clients knowing about how to do procedure for amendment of trademark applications in Vietnam. Before the IPVN issues decisions on rejection of an application, decisions on refusal to grant a protection title or decisions on the grant of a protection title, the applicant may amend of the application on his/her own initiative or upon the request of the IPVN.

A request for application amendments includes:

(i) 02 declarations requesting application amendments which are typed according to form No. 01-SĐĐ Appendix B of Circular No. 01/2007/TT-BKHCN;

(ii) Documents certifying the change of the application [In response to a request for amendment or supplementation of the trademark registration applications, the applicant shall submit amended or supplemented copies of documents enclosed with a detailed written explanation of the amended contents as compared with the initially submitted documents, specifically: 05 identical mark specimens, list of goods and services bearing the mark. The amendment of an application must not expand the protection coverage (or increase the protection volume) beyond the contents disclosed in the application];

(iii) Power of attorney (in case the request is filed through a representative);

Fee in application amendments request & re-examination

• Fee for application amendments request (VND 160,000/ 01 content of the request) and the fee for publication (VND 120,000/ 01 request for application amendments in case the application has been accepted as a valid application).
• An application amendments request is filed after the IPVN issues Notification of intended grant of certificates and pay fees, charges in case the amendment of information related to the nature of the object stated in the application (specifically, the mark specimens, list of goods and services bearing the mark and regulations on the use of collective or certification marks), the application must be re-examination and the fee for substantive re-examination is calculated based on the number of objects (VND 550,000/ 01 group of goods or services).

Time for processing a dossier for registration of a trademark application amendments request:

02 months.

Methods of filing application.

The applicant may choose paper filing or online filing through the IPVN’s online public service portal, specifically as follows:

(i) Paper filing

The applicant may submit request for application amendments directly or via postal service to one of the IPVN’s application receiving places, specifically as follows:

– Head Office of IPVN, address: 386 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi city.

– Representative Office of IPVN in Ho Chi Minh City, address: 7th Floor, Ha Phan Building, 17/19 Ton That Tung, Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh city.

– Representative Office of IPVN in Da Nang City, address: 3rd floor, 135 Minh Mang, Khue My ward, Ngu Hanh Son district, Da Nang city.

In case of filing request for application amendments by post, the application charges/ fees must be transferred by postal service, then a copy of the Money Transfer Receipt must be attached to application and send to one of the above-mentioned IPVN’s office to prove the amount paid.

(Note: If the fee or charge is transferred to one of the above-mentioned IPVN’s application-receiving places, the applicant must send the dossier to the corresponding application-receiving point).

(ii) Online filing

– Conditions for online filing: Applicants need to have a digital certificate, a digital signature and a resisted account which is approved by the IPVN on the Online Application Receiving System.

– Online filing:

+ The applicant need to complete the steps of filing request for application amendments on the IPVN’s Online Application Receiving System. After that, a confirmation of online submission will be sent to the applicant.

+ The confirmation of online submission must be presented to one of the IPVN’s office and the applicant needs to attached documents (if any) and pay fees/ charges as prescribed within 01 month from the date of online submission.

+ If all documents and fees/ charges mentioned above are fully submitted as prescribed, an IPVN’s officer will issue the application number in the Online Application Receipt System.

If one of the documents and fees/ charges is not fully submitted, the application will be denied.

In the event that the applicant fails to complete the prescribed application procedure, the online application procedure will be canceled and the Online Application Cancellation Notice will be sent to the applicant via the Online Application Receiving System.

For all information related to beverage products trademark registration & trademark renewal, please contact Viet An Law for specific instructions.