Register a trademark for logistics service in Vietnam

In the current economic market, businesses are competing fiercely for-profits, logistics services increasingly prove their important position. According to the Law on Commerical, logistics services can be understood as the activities of traders and organizations performing one or more tasks including receiving goods, transporting, storing, storing yards, customs clearance, customer consulting, packaging, marking, delivery, or other services related to the goods as agreed with the customer. For businesses doing in the logistics field, they can register for trademark protection for the services they provide to distinguish them from the services of other subjects and increase the prestige of customers.

A trademark registration dossier includes:

• A trademark sample with dimensions bigger than 3 x 3 cm and smaller than 8 x 8 cm;

Trademark samples can be text signs, drawings, images, or a combination of elements. However, a trademark must not be identical or confusingly similar to the national flag or emblem; the name of the state agency, political organization; the name of the consulate, the national hero; must not be identical or confusingly similar to a protected trademark.

• A list of goods/services intended to register:

Goods/services intended to register shall be classified according to the Nice Classification. For logistics services, there are several activities in class 39 including Transportation by boat, Transport by car, Freight, Warehouse, Transport of furniture, Loading and Unloading services, Transport Logistics, Packing of goods,…

• A trademark registration declaration (if customers authorize Viet An Law to submit, this declaration will be signed by the representative of Viet An Law);
• A power of attorney to apply;
• Receipts of fee payments.

After submitting, the application can be amended, supplemented. However, it must be done at the state management agency in charge of industrial property, then the agency will issue a refusal notice to grant a protection title or notice to grant a protection title. The applicant can amend and supplement the application; request recording of changes in the applicant’s name and address; request recording of applicant changes.

Notices: The amendment, supplementation must not change the scope of stated objects or the nature of them

Processing the application:

         The application will be considered by the Intellectual Property Office within 13 – 18 months including these stages: Form appraisal (01 – 02 months); Publish on the gazette (02 months); Content appraisal (09 – 12 months); Grant and Publish the protection title (01 – 02 months).

         The protection title is valid for 10 years from the date of submission and can be renewed.

Renewing the protection title:

         Although the law does not limit the number of extensions for protection title. However, the protection title owner needs to pay attention to some problems to prevent the protection title from being invalidated:

• Before the protection title invalidate 6 months, the owner must submit the renewal request at the Intellectual Property office (it can be submitted later but not later than 06 months from the protection title invalid;
• Pay the renewal fee.

Customers can use the search on trademark services of Viet An Law before submitting to assess the strongest possibility to register. The search includes 02 steps: preliminary search and in-depth search. Viet An Law will advise on amendment and supplementation and represent a customer in submitting.

Customers can contact Viet An Law to have more detailed advice on intellectual property registration in general and trademark registration in Vietnam.