Updates to Vietnam IP Law

Vietnam has enacted significant amendments to its Law on Intellectual Property, which will take effect on 1 April 2026. These amendments represent a strategic reform aimed at tackling the challenges of the digital economy, aligning with international trade commitments, streamlining administrative procedures, and strengthening enforcement framework. 

Generally, the amendments reshape the IP system to be more digitally savvy (e.g. mandating regulations for AI-generated IP, expanding definition of industrial design to cover products in non-physical form, allowing the use of publicly available data for training AI systems) and more economically oriented (e.g. establishing a legal framework for IP valuation, encouraging the exploitation (including monetization) of IP rights), while also improving administrative efficiency (e.g. shortening timeline for IP Office to conduct substantive examination, introducing expedited substantive examination for patent applications and trademark applications) and enhancing IP enforcement (e.g. doubling statutory damage upper limit to 1 billion VND, providing specific range of compensation (10 to 100 times the base salary) for mental damage, granting authorities the power to disable access to infringing online content).

Specifically, the following briefly summarises some of the main amendments relating to inventions (patents and utility solutions) and designs.

Inventions (Patents and Utility Solutions)

• Deadline for requesting for substantive examination is shortened from 42 months to 36 months from the filing date (or priority date, if applicable).
• Timeline for IP Office to conduct substantive examination is shortened from 18 months to 12 months from publication or examination request (whichever is later).
• In cases prescribed by the Government, the applicant may request expedited substantive examination, in which case the timeline for IP Office to conduct substantive examination under the expedited route is further shortened to 3 months.
• Opposition period for a patent application is shortened from 9 months to 6 months from the publication date, or further to 3 months for patent applications undergoing expedited substantive examination.   

Industrial Designs

• Design is redefined to cover (1) part of a product, and (2) product in non-physical form. For the non-physical design to be industrial applicable, the non-physical products need to be able to be identically reproduced in cyberspace.
• Timeline for IP Office to conduct substantive examination is shortened from 7 months to 5 months from publication date.
• Publication occurs 1 month from acceptance of formality (with a possible delay of up to 7 months upon request) – a shorter timeframe than the 2-month window before the amendments.
• Opposition period for a design application is shortened from 4 months to 3 months from publication date.
• Disclosure of a design in an industrial property application or protection title published by the IP Office within 6 months before date of filing may be disregarded, if publication was non-compliant or the application was filed without right to register.

Generally, applications filed before 1 April 2026 shall be processed according to the old IP Law in effect at the time of filing, except the following scenarios where the new IP Law applies:

1. formal examination of applications that have not yet been accepted as valid for IP rights by the IP Office;
2. opposition period for applications published from 1 April 2026;
3. substantive examination period for applications published from 1 April 2026.

While uncertainties remain in various aspects of implementation (e.g. to what extent the administrative efficiency can be improved in practice, how AI-generated IP objects are regulated, how the IP assessing system functions, how agencies and stakeholders in the upgraded IP framework coordinate in preventing online content infringement etc.), the amendments show that Vietnam is demonstrating its commitment to evolving its IP framework to meet digital-era challenges and keep pace with the evolving global IP environment.

In view of the amendments, innovators having IP protection in Vietnam may wish to relook at their IP portfolios to identify assets suitable for capitalization or collateralization and consider possible exploitation opportunities of their IP rights. Innovators who are seeking IP protection in Vietnam may wish to be extra mindful on the various shortened timelines and strategically manage their global IP portfolio. Extra resources may be needed for those who wish to operate in Vietnam and/or have potential competitors in Vietnam to closely monitor patent filings from their competitors, especially in view of the drastically shortened timeframe for opposing a patent application undergoing expedited substantive examination.

Further updates on the development of detailed regulations and guidelines under the new IP law will be provided as additional information emerges.