- Email: rubby@ipcells.com
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Along with protecting intellectual property rights in general, protecting industrial designs in particular is an important step to effectively protect and use intellectual property against infringement by others.
Beside the description, set of photos or drawings is one the most important documents of the dossier for registration industrial design. In fact, there are many cases where industrial design applications are refused protection because they do not meet the regulations on sets of photos/drawings. So according to Vietnam's intellectual property law, sets of photos or drawings of industrial designs are required to satisfy which conditions?
1. Requirements for set of photo/drawings of industrial design
Tthe applicant shall submit the sets of photos or drawings that fully present design features of the industrial design to be protected according to which any person with average knowledge in the corresponding art can identify that industrial design, and follow the following instructions:
(i) Photos or drawings must be clear and well defined; drawings must be presented with unbroken lines; the background of a photo or drawing must be monochrome and contrast with the industrial design; a photo or drawing must show only the product imbued with the industrial design to be protected (not accompanied with another product);
(ii) Photos or drawings must show the industrial design on the same scale. The size of the industrial design shown in photos or drawings must neither be smaller than 90 mm x 120 mm nor larger than 190 mm x 277 mm;
(iii) Photos and drawings must show the industrial design viewed in the same direction and numbered in the following order: three-dimensional picture of the industrial design, front, rear, right-side, left- side, top-down and down-top shadows of the industrial design; shown shadows must be frontispieces.
2. Note for set of photo/drawings of industrial design
- For industrial designs with symmetrical projections, photos and drawings show additional symmetrical projections are not required to be included in the application, provided that such ones are specified in the list of photos and drawings in the description;
- For the industrial design of an expandable product (for instance: box, package, etc.), shadows of the industrial design may be replaced with photos or drawings of the industrial design in an expanded state;
- Depending on the complexity of an industrial design, more photos or three-dimensional drawings from other angles, cross-sections or magnified pictures of parts, pictures of knocked down components of the product,… may be required to clearly show the nature and design features of the industrial design.
- For the industrial design of the product assembled or assembled from various parts, photos or drawings of these parts may be provided but provided for illustrative purposes and not for the purposes of establishing industrial property rights to the industrial design of such parts;
- Photos or drawings must show the industrial design in the same selected usages; photos or drawings showing other usages that may be provided to clarify the nature of the industrial design;
- For each variation of the industrial design, there must be a set of photos or drawings fully presenting it according to the above conditions;
- For a set of products, there must be three-dimensional pictures of the whole set and a set of photos or drawings of each product in the set according to the above conditions.
- The useful recommendations for the applicant when creating a set of photographs are: the position and distance between the camera and the object during the photoshoot need to be fixed; adjusting the appropriate photographic focal length to most clearly show all the external details of the object; and do not focus on a specific point of the object (do not use background blur mode). For a set of drawings, it is necessary to uniformly represent even the smallest external details of the object while maintaining the same size ratio between the details at different projection angles.
In case you need assistance on Industrial design registration in Vietnam, please do not hesitate to contact us via email: rubby@ipcells.com
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.
