Trademarks registration for microwave ovens in Vietnam

Microwave ovens help people a lot in daily life. Due to microwave ovens, people save a bit of time with housework and cooking. In the market today, microwave ovens appear a lot of different trademarks. Therefore, manufacturers and traders of this product need to pay more attention to protection through trademark protection.

According to the Law on Intellectual Property, the rights to trademarks are established only based on decisions on protection title granting by state management agencies according to registration procedures. Therefore, to protect trademarks, enterprises need to carry out the following registration procedures:

Prepare a dossier including:

• A trademark sample with dimensions bigger than 3 x 3 cm and smaller than 8 x 8 cm;
• A list of services/goods intended to register;
• A trademark registration declaration (if customers authorize Viet An Law to submit the dossier, this declaration will be signed by the representative of Viet An Law);
• A power of attorney Viet An Law to submit the dossier;
• Receipts of fee payments.

Notices: The list of services/goods must be classified according to the Nice Classification. Microwave ovens are classified in class 11.

The Intellectual Property office processes the application:

         Form appraisal stage: 01 – 02 months

         In this stage, the Intellectual Property office considers whether or not the application meets the requirements for form, trademark sample, the owners, rights to submit the application, class classification,…

• If the application meets the requirements, the Intellectual Property Office will issue a notice to accept the application and publish the application;
• If the application does not meet the requirements, the Intellectual Property Office will issue a notice to refuse the application and request the applicant to amend. The applicant will start to amend the application according to request and submit an amendment official-letter at the Intellectual Property office.

Publish the application on the gazette: 02 months

         From the date of publishment, any third party has the right to oppose the grant of a trademark protection title. The time limit for objecting to granting a protection title will last from the time application is published in the Intellectual Property Office to the time the trademark is granted a protection title.

Content appraisal stage: 09 – 12 months

         The Intellectual Property office considers conditions for trademark registration then evaluates the possibility to grant a protection title for a registered trademark. If the application meets the conditions, the Intellectual Property Office will issue a notice to grant a protection title. If not, the Intellectual Property Office will issue a notice to refuse to grant a protection title. Enterprises consider and draft an official-letter to answer, the complaint about decisions of the Intellectual Property office, and at the same time provide grounds for granting trademark protection titles to their trademarks.

Use the trademark:

         The protection title owners can use their trademark through the following acts:

• Affix the protected trademark on goods, goods packaging, means of business, means of service documents of transactions in business activities;
• Circulate, offer for sale, advertise for sale, stockpile for sale of goods bearing the protected trademark;
• Import of goods and services bearing the protected trademark.

However, the protection title owner should note that if the trademark has not been used continuously for 5 years, the protection title may be terminated if there is a request application.

Enterprises, individuals wishing for trademark registration in Vietnam & around the world please contact Viet An Law – Vietnam intellectual property agent  for detailed instructions on filing a trademark registration application.