Overview on Industrial Property Representation Services in Vietnam

Article 151 of the Law on Intellectual Property of Vietnam stipulates that Industrial Pproperty Representation services include:

(i) Representing organizations and individuals before competent state agencies on establishing and protecting Industrial Property (IP) rights;

(ii) Consulting on issues related to procedures for establishing and protecting IP rights;

(iii) Other services related to procedures for establishing and protecting IP rights.

Industrial property representatives include organizations providing  IP representation services (“IP representation service organizations”) and individuals practicing IP representation of such organizations (“IP Agents”)

Conditions for conducting business in IP representation service business are also clearly stipulated in Article 154, specifically:

i) Enterprises, cooperatives, law practice organizations, and scientific and technological service organizations established and operating in accordance with the provisions of law with at least one individual having a Certificate of practice in IP representation services, are allowed to conduct IP representation services business under the name of an IP representation service organization;

ii) Foreign law practice organizations practicing in Vietnam must not conduct IP representation services.

Individuals wishing to practice IP representation services must meet the following conditions: (i) have a Certificate of practice in IP representation services (issued by the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam after having registered to attend and passed the professional examination), and (ii) work for an IP representation service organization.

By the end of 2024, the total number of registered IP representative organizations in Vietnam is 344 and 587 individuals were granted IP representative service practice certificates.

State management of IP representative activities (including professional examination, granting/revoking practice certificates) is under the authority of the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (the IP Vietnam). In 2024, the IP Vietnam appraised 195 IP representative dossiers, including:

• 95 dossiers of recognition of IP representative service organizations;
• 95 dossiers of modification of information related to the organization (removing/or changing the name of the IP representative, changing the organization's names or address, etc.);
• 05 dossiers of deletion of the name of the representative organization.

IP representative organizations have played a very important role in establishing and enforcing IP rights for both domestic and foreign individuals, businesses, and organizations operating in Vietnam. Statistics from the IP Vietnam shows that the rate of applications for establishing IP rights through IP representative service organizations in 2024 continued to be high, accounting for about 63.23% of the total number of applications received by the IP Vietnam, specifically as follows:

• Patent applications: 91.86%
• Utility solution applications: 41.03%
• Industrial design applications: 76.32%
• Trademark applications: 58.46%.