Infringement acts

Dealing with the infringements and authorities

Dealing with the infringement through civil remedies

Dealing with the infringement through administrative and criminal remedies

Border control measures

Using the protected invention, using the protected industrial design or another industrial design insufficiently different from it, or using the protected layout design or any original part of it, within the validity term of the Protection Title without permission of the owner;

Using the invention, industrial design or layout design without paying compensation in accordance with the provisions on provisional right as provided for in Article 131 of the Law on Intellectual Property.

Accessing or acquiring information embodied in a business secret by taking acts against secret-keeping measures taken by the lawful controller of the business secret;

Disclosing or using information embodied in a business secret without permission of the owner the business secret;

Breaching secret-keeping contracts or deceiving, inducing, bribing, forcing, seducing or abusing the trust of persons in charge of secret-keeping in order to access, acquire or disclose a business secret;

Accessing to or acquiring information embodied in a business secret, that is submitted by another person under procedures for granting a license of business or marketing in respect of a product, by actions against secret-keeping measures taken by competent agencies;

Using or disclosing business secret, while knowing or being obliged to know that it has been acquired by another person engaged in one of the acts referred to in subparagraphs a, b, c and d of this paragraph;

Failure to perform the obligation of secret keeping provided for in Article 128 of the Law on Intellectual Property.

Using signs identical with a protected mark for goods or services identical with those in the list registered with the mark;

Using signs identical with a protected mark for goods or services similar or related to those in the list registered with the mark if such use is likely to cause confusion as to the origin of the goods or services;

Using signs similar to a protected mark for the goods or services identical with, similar or related to those in the list registered with the mark, if such use is likely to cause confusion as to the origin of the goods or services;

Using signs identical with or similar to a well-known mark, or signs in the form of translation or transliteration of a well-known mark, for any goods or services, including those dissimilar or unrelated to the good or service having the well-known mark, if such use is likely to cause confusion as to the origin of the goods or services or wrong impression as to the relationship between the user of such signs and the well-known mark owner.

Using the protected geographical indication for products that do not satisfy the peculiar characteristics and quality of the product having the geographical indication although such products originate from a geographical area bearing such geographical indication;

Using the protected geographical indication for products similar to the product having the geographical indication for the purposes of taking advantage of its the reputation and goodwill;

Using a sign identical with or similar to the protected geographical indication for products not originating from the geographical area bearing the geographical indication and therefore causing consumers mislead about the products originating from that geographical area;

Using a protected geographical indications of wines or spirits for the wines or spirits that are not originating in the territories corresponding to the geographical indication, even where the true origin of goods is indicated or the geographical indication is used in translation or transcription or accompanied by such words as “kind”, “type”, “style”, “imitation” or the like.

 The following acts shall be acts of unfair competition:

Using commercial indications that cause confusion as to business entities or business activities or commercial source of goods or services;

Using commercial indications that cause confusion as to the origin, production method, feature, quality, quantity or other characteristics of goods or services; or as to the conditions for provision of goods and services;

Using a mark being protected in a country which is party to an international treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a party under which provisions, the representative or agent of the mark owner is prohibited from using the mark, if the user was a representative or agent of the mark owner and such use was neither consented to by the mark owner nor justified;

Registering or possessing the right to use or using a domain name identical with or confusingly similar to a protected trade name or mark of another person, or a geographical indication that one does not have the right to use, for the purpose of possessing the domain name, benefiting from or prejudicing reputation and goodwill of the respective mark, trade name and geographical indication.

Exploiting or using the rights of the protection certificate holder without his permission.

Using a denomination of the variety which is identical or similar to a protected denomination of the plant variety of the same or other similar species.

Using the protected plant variety without payment of the compensation amount provided for in Article 189 of the Law on Intellectual Property.

Intellectual property counterfeit goods referred to in the Law on Intellectual Property include counterfeit mark goods or counterfeit geographical indication goods (hereinafter referred to as counterfeit mark goods) referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article and pirated goods referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article.

Counterfeit mark goods are goods or their packaging bearing a mark or a sign which is identical with or substantially indistinguishable from a mark or geographical indication which is protected for such goods without consent of the owner of such mark or the management organization of such geographical indication respectively.

Pirated goods are copies made without the consent of the copyrights holder or the related rights holder.

Taking technological measures to prevent infringement of intellectual property rights;

Requesting organizations, individuals that have committed acts of infringement of intellectual property rights to terminate the infringing acts, apologize, publicly rectify and compensate damages;  

Requesting the competent state agencies to handle acts of infringement of intellectual property rights in accordance with provisions of the Law on Intellectual Property and other related laws and regulations;

Initiating a lawsuit at a competent court or an arbitrator to protect their legitimate rights and interests;

Civil remedies

Administrative remedies

Criminal remedies

Provisional measures

Administrative preventative measures applicable under administrative procedures

Border control measures

The application of civil remedies and criminal remedies shall fall within the authorities of the courts. In appropriate cases, the courts are entitled to apply provisional measures in accordance with the laws and regulations.

The application of administrative remedies shall fall within the authorities of inspectorate, police agencies, market management agencies, custom offices and the People’s Committee of all levels. In appropriate cases, the above-mentioned agencies are entitled to apply preventive measures and ensure that administrative penalties shall be imposed in accordance with the laws and regulations.

The application of intellectual property border control measures with regard to imports and exports shall fall within the authorities of custom offices.

Compelling termination of the infringement of intellectual property rights;

Compelling public rectification and apology;

Compelling the performance of civil obligations;

Compelling compensation for damages;

Compelling destruction, distribution or use for non-commercial purpose in respect of goods, materials and implements the predominant use of which has been in the creation or trading of intellectual property right infringing goods, provided that such distribution and use does not affect the exploitation of rights by the intellectual property rights holder

Seizure or Attachment;

Sealing, prohibition of changing status or displacing;

Prohibition of transferring ownership;

Other provisional measures shall be applied in accordance with the Civil Procedure Code.

Committing an act of infringement of intellectual property rights, which causes loss to consumers or the society;

Not terminating an act of infringement of intellectual property rights, even if a written notice has been served by the intellectual property right holder;

Producing, importing, transporting, and trading in intellectual property counterfeit goods referred to in Article 213 of the Law on Intellectual Property or assigning others to do so;

Producing, importing and trading in articles bearing a mark or a geographical indication that is identical with or confusingly similar to a protected mark or a protected geographical indication or assigning others to do so;

Infringement upon copyright - Article 134 of the Penal Code

Infringement upon industrial property rights - Article 171 of the Penal Code

Manufacturing and/or trading in fake goods - Article 156 of the Penal Code

Manufacturing and/or trading in fake goods being food, foodstuffs, curative medicines, preventive medicines - Article 157 of the Penal Code

Manufacturing and/or trading in fake goods being animal feeds, fertilizers, veterinary drugs, plant protection drugs, plant varieties, animal breeds - Article 158 of the Penal Code

Warning;

Monetary fine that shall be at least equal to the value of the discovered infringing goods but must not exceed five times of that value.

Complementary remedies depending on nature and level of the infringement: (i) Confiscation of intellectual property counterfeit goods, materials, raw materials and implements mainly used for manufacturing or trading such intellectual property counterfeit goods; (ii) Suspension of relevant business activities for a definite term.

Compelling destruction, distribution or use of the intellectual property counterfeit goods for non-commercial purposes and materials, raw materials and implements mainly used for manufacturing or trading such intellectual property counterfeit goods provided that such distribution and use does not affect the exploitation of rights by intellectual property right holder;

Compelling delivery of the transiting goods out of the territory of Vietnam or re-export of the intellectual property counterfeit goods, implements and materials that are imported mainly for manufacturing or trading such intellectual property counterfeit goods, after having removed infringing elements.

Temporary hold of related individuals; Temporary detention of the goods, means and implements used for such infringement;

Search of related individuals; Search of the place where infringing goods, means and implements are stored;

Other administrative preventative measures in accordance with the laws and regulations.

Suspension of customs procedures for suspected intellectual property right infringing goods. This is a measure taken at the request of the intellectual property right holder for the purpose of collecting information and evidence about the lots of goods which serves as the basis for the intellectual property right holder to exercise the right to request for the handling of the infringement and to request for the application of provisional measures or preventive measures, and to ensure that an administrative penalty is to be imposed.

Examination and Supervision to detect goods containing signs of infringement of intellectual property rights. This is a measure taken at the request of the intellectual property right holder for the purpose of collecting information in order to exercise the right to request for the suspension of customs procedures