By Linh Nguyen
The year 2020 was an incredibly challenging year with changes in every aspect of economy and society caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite the downturn in the global economy, Vietnam’s economic growth increased by 2.91% thanks to the Vietnamese government’s development policies and effective anti-epidemic measures. Similarly, according to the 2020 Annual Report of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPVN), the total registration of industrial property rights increased by 1.3% and the total granted titles of protection has gone up by 18.1% compared to 2019.
1. There were 8,368 patent applications filed with the IPVN in 2020 – an increase of 3.1% compared to the previous year
The increase is surprisingly brought upon by the sharp growth in the number of patent applications (including utility solution applications) filed by Vietnamese applicants – a 35% rise in comparison with 2019. Meanwhile the number of patent applications filed by non-Vietnamese applicants decreased by 2%.
The top five countries filing patent applications in Vietnam in 2020 are as follows:
2. In 2020, IPVN began receiving international design applications designating Vietnam via the Hague system
The number of design applications filed via national route was 3,213 – a decline of 8% compared to 2019; among which 1,999 applications were filed by Vietnamese and 1,214 applications were filed by non-Vietnamese applicants. While there was a slight increase in the number of applications filed by Vietnamese, the number of applications filed by non-Vietnamese applicants decreased remarkably – about 26.4% in comparison with the previous year.
The reasons for such decrease may be attributed to the impact of the pandemic towards non-Vietnamese proprietors and the possibility of indirect filings via international route since 2020 marks the first year Vietnam received international applications under the Hague Agreement. According to official statistics, 174 international applications designated Vietnam, which included 328 industrial designs.
3. The number of national and international trademark applications filed with the IPVN increased by 1.6% compared to 2019
Following the same trend as patent registrations, this increase follows the growing number of trademarks filed via the national route by Vietnamese applicants. The number of national trademark applications by non-Vietnamese applicants decreased by more than 18% compared to 2019.
The top 5 foreign countries filing trademark applications in Vietnam in 2020 are as follows:
It is anticipated from the above table that non-Vietnamese applicants seem to be tendentiously shifting their trademark filings from the national route to the international route designating Vietnam via Madrid system.
4. The classification titles of the most popularly-filed patent and trademark applications show the imprint of the COVID-19 pandemic on our lives
Over the past year, we have familiarized ourselves with social distancing, working and learning from home, conducting sanitization measures, keeping healthy and wearing masks, etc. Unsurprisingly, the most popularly-filed patent and trademark applications in 2020 are found in the fields of hygiene, medicine and technology.
The most popular patent classifications – based on the International Patent Classification (IPC) – of filed patent applications are Class “A61 – Medical or veterinary science and hygiene” (i.e., preparations for medical or toilet purposes, chemical compositions used in disinfection, sterilization or deodorization, etc.) and Class “H04 – Electric communication technique” (i.e., multiplex communication, transmission of digital information, wireless communication networks, etc.).
For trademarks, registered marks under Class 3 (i.e., non-medicated toiletry preparations, cleaning preparations for use in the home and other environments, etc.), Class 5 (i.e., pharmaceuticals and other preparations for medical or veterinary purposes, etc.), and Class 9 (i.e., audiovisual and information technology equipment, etc.) were the most sought after among brand owners seeking trademark registration in Vietnam.
5. Increase in number of granted titles of protection in comparison with 2019
In 2020, overcoming difficulties and obstacles of the pandemic, IPVN successfully granted IP protection for 48,072 applications – an increase by 18.1% compared to 2019. This included 4,597 invention patents/ utility solution patents, 2,066 industrial designs patents, 33,700 national trademark registrations, 7,688 international trademark registrations and 21 geographical indication registrations.
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