At present, Vietnam does not have a court specializing in intellectual property (IP). There are now moves to rectify this, with a Specialized People's Court of First Instance for IP (or “Specialized IP Court” for short) expected by the end of this year, if we're being optimistic.
Today, IP litigation in Vietnam is handled by the general civil court, where judges assigned to an IP case may lack specialist knowledge of IP. In addition, for patent litigation, the judges may also lack technical expertise. This means that many IP litigation cases progress slowly, and incur high costs. Given this, administrative enforcement of IP is usually chosen over litigation when it comes to enforcing IP rights in Vietnam. Notably, administrative enforcement can be used for patents and designs as well as trademarks in Vietnam. However, the use of administrative enforcement rarely satisfies the IP holders. This is because no damages can be awarded through this route and the limits placed on penalties that can be imposed on an infringer may not provide sufficient deterrent to prevent further infringement – especially when the infringement is on a large scale. Further, administrative decisions may not be consistent from case to case.
The frustration of IP holders seeking effective enforcement in Vietnam may soon be at an end, as the Specialized IP Court has been legislated for in the new Law on Organization of the People's Courts passed on 24 June 2024, and which came into force on 1 January 2025.
Pursuant to Article 62.2 of the new law, the Specialized IP Court will exercise jurisdiction in the IP field, including: conducting first-instance trials of IP-related civil and administrative cases; issuing decisions to enforce legally effective court judgments and decisions on IP administrative cases; and imposing administrative sanctions for acts of obstructing litigation activities.
However, the Specialized IP Court is not expected to start operations quite yet, as there needs to be amendments to other Codes and Laws in Vietnam (e.g. Civil Procedure Code, the Administrative Procedure Law, etc.) As such, and as allowed for by the transitional provisions of the new law, litigation practice for IP remains unchanged until the incompatibilities with pre-existing laws have been solved, which hopefully may be affected before the end of 2025.
We will provide updates on the progress of establishing this Specialist IP Court as more information becomes available.
/Passle/6130aaa9400fb30e400b709a/SearchServiceImages/2025-04-25-09-31-11-351-680b565f9f65cf7abc96493e.jpg)
/Passle/6130aaa9400fb30e400b709a/SearchServiceImages/2025-05-02-14-01-28-745-6814d038a0108d1291d930ea.jpg)
/Passle/6130aaa9400fb30e400b709a/MediaLibrary/Images/2024-05-16-11-37-11-800-6645efe75f1e870076120de2.png)