Patent Owners Beware – Vietnam has eliminated its grace period

Recently Intellectual Property (IP) practice in Vietnam and Myanmar has undergone attention-grabbing developments that are crucial and important. To be specific, the developments were mainly on the change in Regulations of IP in both the countries – basically the patent offices have made amendments to relevant Regulations to reflect the change in Patent (PT) and Industrial Design (ID) practice in the respective countries.

The National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) of Vietnam has amended the national phase entry date to Vietnam by completely eliminating the late entry provision provided before. Previously, the patent office had allowed late entry into Vietnam whereby it was possible to enter Vietnam within a 6-month grace period after the 31-month national phase deadline.

However, effective from 15 January 2018, the 6-month grace period has been revoked and will no longer be applicable in Vietnam. Simply put, any applications to be filed after the 31-month national phase deadline will no longer benefit/enjoy the 6-month grace period. Therefore, national phase applications must be filed by the 31-month in order to be able to claim priority from the PCT application.

Next, effective from 15 January 2018, 6-months grace period for requesting for substantive examination for patent and/or utility solution applications are no applicable. The patent office has concluded that a request for substantive examination has to be filed by the due date of 42 months from the priority date for patent or 36 months from the priority date for utility solution which date are not extendable.

Last but not least, the patent office has confirmed that it is mandatory to file Vietnamese language translation at a time of filing the patent and/or the utility solution applications. Generally, any delay or any extension for filing the Vietnamese language translation will no longer be entertained and/or accepted by the patent office.

If you need any clarification on the above matter or on any other IP matter, please contact us at kass@kass.com.my.

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KASS

Communications at KASS International Sdn Bhd

KASS International is an established Intellectual Property Firm which offers a one-stop solution for IP matters in Malaysia, South East Asia, and worldwide.