NEW GUIDES ON PROCEDURES FOR THE ACQUISITION OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN RIGHTS

Simplifying the certification of accompanying documents

Original documents such as a Power of Attorney no longer need to be notarized by a Notary Public.  Where the applicant is an individual, the documents simply need to be signed by him.  Where the applicant is an entity, the documents need to be signed by an authorized officer of such entity and affixed with its seal (if any).

It is now possible for the applicant to certify that a document attached to the application is a true copy of the original and/or a Vietnamese translation (if any) of an attached document is truly and correctly translated from the original.
 
Cutting down the amount documents required at filing

According to Circular 29, a document evidencing the applicant’s legal right to file a patent application, such as the Deed of Assignment from the Designer(s) to the applicant if the applicant and the designer(s) are not the same or a document evidencing the legitimate right to a trademark and/or trade name if they are included in the design, is no longer required at the time of filing. However, such documents are not completely disregarded. They should be submitted on the request of the National Office of Intellectual Property (“NOIP”) if it has reasonable grounds to doubt the applicant’s eligibility.

Where the application claims priority, the priority application is no longer required to be translated into Vietnamese except in certain instances as required by the NOIP.

The amount of copies of required documents has also been decreased from 8 sets to 6 sets of photos/drawings of the design.

New requirements with respect to the content of a design patent application

Circular 29 now allows the applicant to file different applications for different variants of a filed design, provided that the later filed application indicate that the design therein is a new variant of an earlier filed design as well as its application number and filing date.  With such indications, the design in a later filed application will not be considered as having no novelty in comparison with the design in the earlier filed application.  However, upon grant of patent, the NOIP will issue only one patent covering all variants of the design in equivalent applications.

This provision was not previously stipulated in Circular 3055.

Shorter period for examination

Filed design applications are automatically subject to examination as to form and then publication for opposition.  The examination as to form now shall be completed within 1 month from the date of filing all required documents instead of in 3 months as in the past.

The published applications will be subject to examination as to substance.  The examination as to substance now shall be shortened from 9 months (counted from the date of acceptance of the application as to form) to 6 months only (counted from the publication date of the application).

Simplifying procedures for the recordal of change, amendment, assignment and division of applications

Applicants now can, on their initiative, make amendments to their applications at any time from the filing date to the date before the NOIP issues a decision on granting a patent. Previously, the applicant was only allowed to make amendments to the filed application during the period of substantive examination of the application.

A single request for recordal of change of name and/or address or assignment is now sufficient to effect the change in all related applications/patents.

The applicant now can divide the filed design application on his own initiative. The filing date and the priority date (if the priority is claimed) of the “children application” will be kept the same as that of the “parent application”.