New highlights in draft amendments to intellectual property law

On the afternoon of September 14, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh, the National Assembly Standing Committee commented on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Intellectual Property Law.

Urgent requirements for socio-economic development

Presenting the Report on the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Intellectual Property Law, Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat said, After 16 years of implementation since its promulgation in 2005 to present. The Intellectual Property Law has played a role in regulating legal relations for this special type of property. However, the current development context has changed a lot compared to 2005. Vietnam is no longer a purely “use of intellectual property” country, but is shifting sharply to being a country that creates this asset for the public. depth growth model. The amendments and supplements to the Intellectual Property Law in 2009 and 2019 are not significant, have not created a strong motivation for research and innovation, and have not yet ensured an adequate and effective legal framework. consequences for the protection, exploitation and protection of intellectual property. Therefore, the amendment and supplementation of this Law on Intellectual Property is an urgent requirement for the socio-economic development of Vietnam.

Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat emphasized that this has been reflected in the guidelines and guidelines of the Party and the State’s policy on perfecting a socialist-oriented market economy, public economy and socialism. Industrialization and modernization to actively participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, rapid and sustainable development based mainly on science and technology, innovation and digital transformation. In addition, the current process of extensive economic integration with Vietnam’s participation in many international commitments is aimed at significantly improving the level of protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, typically the Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Union (EVFTA). These international commitments require the internalization through amendments and supplements to the Intellectual Property Law.

At the meeting, the National Assembly Standing Committee heard Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat present the Government’s proposal on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Intellectual Property Law; listen to the report on preliminary examination of the Law project of the Law Committee of the National Assembly and conduct a discussion on this content. Minister of Planning and Investment Huynh Thanh Dat said that the draft Law amending and supplementing 93 articles (of which 12 are added, 81 are revised) and 1 article is annulled, bringing the total number of articles of the Law on Departments. intellectual property after being revised up to 233 articles, belonging to 7 groups of policies. Specifically:

CPolicy 1: Ensure clear regulations on authors, copyright holders, performers, related rights holders in cases of assignment, transfer of copyright and related rights

Policy 2: Encourage the creation, exploitation and dissemination of inventions, industrial designs and layout designs created from the State budget

Policy 3: Facilitating the process of carrying out procedures for registration of copyright, related rights, and procedures for establishing industrial property rights

Policy 4: Ensuring an adequate and balanced level of protection of intellectual property rights

Policy 5: Strengthening the effectiveness of support activities on intellectual property

Policy 6: Improve the effectiveness of intellectual property rights protection activities

Policy 7: Ensure full and serious implementation of Vietnam’s international commitments on intellectual property protection in the integration process.

These are large groups of policies that affect the views, approaches and handling of the whole IP system, starting from the creation, establishment of rights, protection of rights, exploitation and enforcement of IP rights. . In each group of policies, there will be problems and inadequacies of different IPR objects at different stages, related terms and methods of dealing with these inadequacies.

Specifically, first, the regulations related to determining the holder of property rights will be specified more clearly and specifically, helping the process of transferring ownership and use rights in contracts. transfer and transfer of copyright and related rights are more favorable.

Secondly, regulations related to the determination of ownership and exploitation rights for state-invested scientific research will be more clearly and detailed, thereby encouraging the movement. turning research results into IPR protected assets, creating a premise for more efficient commercial exploitation of these assets in the market.

Third, whether the right is automatically established without registration or registration, the provisions related to the procedure, time limit, composition of records, etc. It also needs to continue to be improved in the direction of compactness, speed, convenience and transparency to encourage and increase registration and establishment of IP rights in order to create a solid basis and evidence in identifying the subject. rights and protected objects, as a premise for the exploitation and enforcement of rights in the future.

Fourthly, regulations related to the protection and enforcement of IPRs need to be reviewed and balanced to ensure an adequate level of protection and a balance between the rights of the right holder on the one hand and the rights of the right holder on the other. use and access to knowledge and technology of society.

Fifth, regulations to promote support activities for the IP system are also reviewed to amend and supplement in the direction of clearer responsibilities, more specific and detailed classification of scope of activities. and at the same time cut down on inappropriate business conditions to match the general administrative procedure reform process of the country.

Sixth, the regulations related to the enforcement of rights will be revised to ensure that the IPR protection mechanism is more effective, reasonable and feasible. And finally, the existing provisions in the IP Law are not fully compatible with the commitments in the international treaties to which Vietnam is a member or the regulations have not yet appeared but must be implemented according to the international commitments. The economy will also be reviewed to amend and supplement accordingly.

In addition, the provisions on the right to register inventions, industrial designs and layout designs that are the result of scientific and technological tasks using the state budget of the draft Law are presented in two ways. consult the National Assembly. Accordingly, Option 1: The organization in charge of research has the right to register inventions, industrial designs and layout designs (as a result of scientific and technological tasks funded by the state budget). and have the right to own inventions, industrial designs and layout designs when granted protection titles, except for objects in the field of defense and security which are still registered by state agencies. Option 2: Keeping the current legal regulations, the right to register these objects belongs to organizations and state agencies that are assigned the rights of investors.

New highlights in the draft amendments to the Intellectual Property Law

– Assessing the new points in this draft amendment of the Intellectual Property Law, the draft has clarified the contents specified in Article 22 on property rights such as performance rights; copy rights; the right to distribute, import for distribution to the public; Thereby providing readers with a more accurate perspective when approaching the law. Specifically:

“b) Performing the work to the public directly or indirectly through phonograms, video recordings or any other technical means accessible to the public.

Public performance of a work includes performing the work in any place accessible to the public except at home;

c) Directly or indirectly reproduce all or part of the work by any technical means or form.

Where temporary copying is an essential and integral part of a technological process, occurs during normal operation of the equipment used and the copy is automatically deleted, without recovery, this right does not apply.. ”

– The draft also amends Article 32, which is that the use cases of related right objects do not require the permission of the related right holder, do not have to pay royalties, thereby amending and supplementing a number of provisions on the use of related rights. used for the purpose of scientific research, teaching, personal learning, etc. not for commercial purposes to ensure compliance with international commitments, at the same time, balance the interests between rights holders and the public enjoying them, and facilitate access to related rights subjects for further research, learning, creating, etc.

– Draft law to supplement online application form to create a legal basis and facilitate online registration for organizations and individuals to meet the simplification of administrative procedures at the request of the Government. about providing public services online, and at the same time catching up with technology trends that are making great strides.

– Draft law on supplementing text to protect sound marks in order to fulfill the obligations in Article 18.18 of the CPTPP Agreement on types of signs that can be registered or registered as trademarks, specifically, listing more “sound signs” graphically represented” into existing signs. Audio signs “represented in graphic form” will be specified in Circulars or Regulations guiding the implementation (for example, music staff, lyrics, sound wave diagrams, etc.) to depend on each stage of playback. socio-economic development as well as human and material resources that can expand or narrow the types of sounds that can be registered as trademarks.

Commenting on this new point, Mr. Nguyen Khac Khang (senior IP expert, Vietnam Copyright Center – VCOP) said: “When Vietnam joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), it poses major challenges to intellectual property standards. This draft Law amending the law internalizes regulations by expanding the scope of trademark registration, specifically, registered trademarks will not stop at just being visible marks in the form of trademarks. letters, words, drawings, images, including holograms or combinations thereof, represented by one or more colors, which are also extended to permit the registration of sound marks and scent brands”. With decades of protection practice in some countries around the world, it can be seen that to set a regulation to approve the protection of sound and odor trademarks is not difficult, but the implementation of establishing the right to protect the trademarks of sound and smell is not difficult. In fact, this brand, especially the scent brand, will be a huge difficulty for Vietnam. Especially when the current facilities of the appraising agency have not yet met the requirements of appraising trademarks with complicated expressions such as sound and smell marks.

– Chairman of the National Assembly’s Ethnic Council Y Thanh Ha Nie Kdam said that it is necessary to consider a number of relevant contents in order to ensure the ethnic policy in the draft Law, to protect, preserve and develop the products of Vietnam. ethnic minority. Accordingly, it is necessary to study additionally the protection regulations for local-related inventions, folk remedies of ethnic minorities, and experience in disease prevention and treatment.

The folk remedies of ethnic minorities have been handed down for many generations in many regions, when moving from different regions, people bring them, even more trusting than western medicine. This is actually difficult in realizing patent protection, especially in the locality because people rely on practice, through leaves and products to mix and make remedies, so it is necessary to research to confirm. Component identification, identification, naming… will be difficult to implement. In addition, the draft Law should provide more specific provisions on copyright rights and obligations of musical works, dances, musical instruments, distinctive ethnic costumes and traditions of ethnic minorities. Currently, the creation of traditional music of ethnic minorities and costumes takes place relatively much, so it is necessary to have specific instructions, identify relevant rights and obligations in order to preserve and preserve the values of ethnic minorities. each nation.

Source: New highlights in draft amendments to intellectual property law (Law & Copyright)