Following the practice in recent years, the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (IPVN) has just released a list of domestic patent (invention/utility solution (utility model)) and industrial design applications and granted cases of all 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam published in the IP Gazette in the first six months of 2024. This list aims to provide information for supporting the State IP management, but it also offers an indication of the status and trends in the field in Vietnam over the mentioned period, particularly when compared to the corresponding periods of recent years.
Patent applications and industrial design applications
The comparisons of the numbers of patent applications and industrial design applications published in the first six months of 2024 with the same periods of 2022 and 2023 are illustrated in the following chart.
It can be observed that the number of patent applications published in the first six months of 2024 has significantly increased compared to the same periods in 2022 and 2023 (increased by 27.4% compared to the same period of 2023, and increased by 8.6% compared to the same period of 2022). The number of industrial design applications published in the first six months of 2024 is lower than in 2023 (decreased by 6.4%), but higher than in 2022 (increased by 3.0%). Accordingly, when considering all the three periods, overall it still reflects a general trend of increasing the number of domestic patent and industrial design applications filed with the IPVN. This indicates a gradual improvement in awareness of the importance of IP rights in Vietnam.
The above outcomes partly result from the propaganda work, raising awareness about IP protection, training in information search and writing patent specification skills for research institutes, universities, businesses, and researchers that the IPVN has recently promoted.
Granted patent cases and industrial design cases
The comparisons of the numbers of granted patent cases and granted industrial design cases in the first six months of 2024 with the same periods of 2022 and 2023 are shown below.
The number of granted patent cases published in the first six months of 2024 has significantly decreased compared to the same periods of 2022 and 2023 (decreased by 23.2% compared to the same period of 2022, and decreased by 52.1% compared to the same period of 2023). The decrease in the number of granted patent cases published in the first six months of 2024 is partly attributed to the IPVN’s efforts in 2023 to process a large number of backlogged patent applications from previous years, resulting in the volume of granted cases in the first six months of 2023 being higher than the corresponding volume of 2024.
Moreover, the first six months of 2024 are considered to be within the initial period of applying new regulations issued to guide the implementation of the amended Law on Intellectual Property that came into effect on 1 January 2023, namely: Decree 65/2023/ND-CP dated 23 August 2023 that came into effect on the same day; Circular 23/2023/TT-BKHCN issued on 30 November 2023 that came into effect on the same day. The adjustment to comply with the new regulations may affect the processing speed of patent applications in the first six months of 2024.
For industrial design applications, the volume of backlogged applications from previous years is high. Recently, the IPVN has made efforts to process the backlog, and as a result, the number of the granted cases has been increased as evidenced by the statistics above. Specifically, the number of granted industrial design cases published in the first six months of 2023 increased by 12.0% compared to the same period of 2022, and the number of granted industrial design cases published in the first six months of 2024 increased by 20.4% compared to the same period of 2023. We believe that the backlog situation will soon be resolved.
As mentioned above, under the strategic direction of the Vietnamese government, many IP provisions were amended or newly introduced, the IPVN has continuously made the provisions highly effective in practice by proceeding with actions such as amending its the Guidelines for patent examination. Besides, the integration of information technology in State management to establish IP rights, such as an online filing system, has been implemented and will gradually improve the speed of processing IP cases. Therefore, it is believed that the establishment and protection of IP rights in Vietnam will be efficiently promoted along with the sustainable economic and social development of the country.
By Hoang Thi Luyen, Hoang Thi Phuong, and Dang Anh Minh
Patent Department
