Vietnam’s regulations on security control of confidential inventions before their overseas registration

Decree No. 122/2010/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government supplements Article 23b and Article 23c to Chapter 3 of Decree No. 103/2006/NĐ-CP detailing and guiding a number of articles of the Law on Intellectual Property regarding industrial property. To be specific:

- Vietnamese organizations and individuals may only register their confidential inventions in countries in which regulations on protection of confidential inventions are available and shall obtain permission of competent agencies under Clause 2, Article 23c of this Decree.

- Inventions of Vietnamese organizations and individuals and inventions created in Vietnam will not be protected by the Vietnamese State if applications for industrial property protection registration thereof have been filed overseas in contravention of the following provisions on security control:

+ Applications for industrial property protection may only be filed overseas when invention registration applications have been filed in Vietnam and the time limit of 6 months from the filing date has expired, except the case specified at Point b of this Clause;

+ Overseas filing of applications for industrial property protection is not allowed when inventions are classified confidential under the law on protection of state secrets as no lilied by competent agencies.

- Identification and disclosure of confidential inventions; establishment and transfer of rights to confidential inventions

+ The identification and disclosure of confidential inventions shall be conducted by the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security under the law on protection of state secrets.

+ The Ministry of Public Security shall assume the prime responsibility for and coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Science and Technology in specifying procedures for identification and disclosure of confidential inventions; protection of confidential inventions; procedures for examination of applications and grant of confidential invention protection titles: management of utilization, licensing of confidential inventions, and overseas registration of industrial property protection of confidential inventions in accordance with the law on protection of state secrets and the law on intellectual property.

View more details at Decree No. 122/2010/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, effective from February 22, 2011.

Nguyen Phu

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