- Email: rubby@ipcells.com
Friday, March 1, 2019
Meaning of patent protection
Patent protection has a significant importance to nation, enterprises and inventors.
For the nation, patent protection under international standards shall contribute to attract foreign investment and encourage foreign technology transfer into Vietnam. In addition, the patent protection system also establishes a healthy business environment for all business sectors irrespective of State or private enterprises. Effective patent protection will encourage people to create more invention.
For enterprises (or investors in creating inventions), exclusive rights to invention within time limit, normally 20 years since the filing date allow them to prevent competitors from copying their inventions. The enterprises shall do business with more advantages than their competitors and solely exploit their inventions to make up for costs which have been invested in creation, continuously investing in other inventions and promoting technology potentials .v.v. Enterprises also benefit from granting licenses for others to utilize their patents through licensing contracts. Basically, the more value of the product basing on inventions, the more meaningful the protection for enterprises is. In order to create such inventions, it will take much time, efforts and money for research and development. Therefore, patent protection is an effective solution for enterprises to protect their investment achievements. However, it doesn’t mean that a patent protected by the State will bring direct benefits for its holder, but those benefits are only determined by capacity of the holder and market factors. In addition, enterprises who have many protected inventions shall enhance their positions and prove economic, science and technology, inventive potentials.
For inventors, patent protection created by themselves may affirm their creative capacity, acknowledge moral benefits and furthermore, they will get deserved payments as provided by law if such inventions are commercialized which means they bring direct benefits for enterprises. This encourages people to create and bring their inventions into manufacturing products and seeking partners to sign licensing contracts.
The validity of a patent may be suspended if the patentee declares in writing abandonment of the design patent or fails to pay the prescribed renewal fee within the time limits as regulated.
When the design patent validity is suspended, the patent rights will be terminated from suspension of the design patent.
5 years from the validity date of design patents. In case the rights to the design patents have been established in bad faith, the time limit is the whole duration of dseign patent protection.
The following acts, committed without the consent from a patent holder, shall constitute a patent infringement:
(i) manufacturing products using a patented design;
(ii) using, importing, advertising or circulating products that have been manufactured using a patented design.
Yes. If independent usage of an industrial design identical with a design under a published industrial design application is taken place prior to the filing date by any person or legal entity (prior user), after the registration of this industrial design, the prior user is entitled to continue using the industrial design without extension and transferring the right to use to others
The scope of design protection includes any design having a set of main features that is identical to or is not substantially different from the same of the protected design.
When substantive examination of the application is requested, the Vietnamese translations of
annexes to the international preliminary examination report (Form PCT/ISA/237 or
PCT/IPEA/409) must be submitted.
