According to the Law on Intellectual property, a trademark is one of the objects of industrial property rights. However, in order to protect it by law, the trademark owner needs to apply for a protection title for it. When the owner registers and is granted a trademark protection title, the owner has the exclusive right to affix the mark on their own products and services. The owner also has the right to allow the others to use it through the trademark licensing contract, has the right to assign the ownership of the trademark, the right to prevent any third party from violating the trademark using.
In any case, the validity of a trademark in Vietnam is calculated from the date of issue to the end of 10 years from the date of submitting. Upon expiration of that time limit, the protection titles owner shall go through the renewal procedures to be able to continue to be the owner of the mark. An important issue the owner needs to pay attention to is the deadline to submit the application for renewal in accordance with the law, specifically:
According to the Law on Intellectual property, the deadline for submitting renewal of the trademark is before and after 06 months from the date the protection title expires. In case of submitting before 06 months from the date the protection title expires, the owner shall only pay the renewal fee to maintain the trademark protection. Submitting application after 06 months when the protection title expires is considered late renewal of the protection title, the owner shall pay the renewal fee plus a fine for those late months of submission (as specified as 10% renewal fee for each month late payment).
The owner need to pay attention to the extension of protection because after the expiration of the above period, the trademark protection will lose all its effect. In order to continue to own the trademark, the title owner shall follow the trademark re-registration procedures.
