 |
-
Service Pallet in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and others
-
Handling and Filing Application.
-
Consulting and Representing Client in Requesting for Amendment,
Renewal and Payment for Annuity.
-
Consulting
and Representing Client in Signing and Recordal for Certification
of Licensing Contract; Franchising and all forms of Technology
Transfer.
-
Consulting
and Representing Client in Appeal and Objection.
-
Consulting and Representing Client in Litigation and Action
against Infringement concerning IP Rights, including Trade Secret
and Rights against unfair Competition.
-
Search
and Collecting Evidences for Actions against Infringement of
IP Rights and in Import & Export.
-
Translation and Certification of Translation.
-
Paying, in the name of Client, Fee for Examination, Annuity
and others.
|
|
Request
for Cancellation
Request for Cancellation:
During the validity term of a certificate, any individual or legal
entity has the right to request the National Office for Intellectual
Property (NOIP) for cancellation of the validity of a Patent or
Certificate of Registration.
Vietnamese laws
provide that the party requesting cancellation shall submit evidence
and proof and bear the cost of collecting them. There are three
typical sorts of Cancellation :
-
Request for
Cancellation basing on argument that the Grant of
Patent or Certificate has not conformed to the legal
regulations : Evidences on errors of the granting procedures
shall be submitted.
-
Request of
Cancellation of a Certification for Trademark Registration
basing on well-known or famous clause
Since Vietnamese
laws, unlike some other’s, do not provide a list of mark that is
accepted as well-known or famous, the requesting party shall usually
submit evidences proving that his mark is well-known or famous and
that the Owner of the trademark in question must have known it
before filing application.
Currently the NOIP
usually accepts the following evidences as sufficient proofs of well
known or famous :
-
Registration of
the Trademark in many countries all over the world;
-
the Annual
Balance Sheets of the last 5 consecutive years (best with
break-down showing the share of the Vietnamese market, if any)
indicating that the mark is distributed world-wide and familiar
to customers (particularly in Vietnam);
-
Evidences of
advertisements (invoices of ads campaign on magazines/TV, etc.,
advertising pictures/boards) in other countries and Vietnam;
-
Request for
Cancellation basing on non-use proof : five (05) years of
non-use might result in cancellation of a mark if it is proved
and requested by a third party.
|
|
Enforcement
Vietnamese
Authorities responsible for
Enforcement :
-
the
National Office of IP (NOIP) : establishment of rights
and identification of infringement;
-
the
Market Control (MC) : Control of the market and seizure
of infringing goods;
-
the
Economic Police (EP) : investigating, provisory custody
of goods and arrest
of person for investigation; taking proceedings;
-
the
Custom Office (CO) : detecting and preventing infringing
goods at border;
-
the
Inspector from Ministry of Science & Technology (MoST)
: Supervision of settlement by the NOIP and taking
administrative proceedings;
-
Civil
Court and Administrative Court : proceedings of civil or
administrative case respectively.
D&A has been
assisting Client in finding out the pivot of each case and thus
indicating the most suitable tactic and strategy for action and thus
to involve the right
authorities. That has always resulted in solving problem with
minimum cost and time.
In one case back in
1996 D&A helped a Client whose Certificate of Trademark
Registration (CTR) was cancelled in Vietnam due to claim of
ownership by his old partner, who with the time turned to his
competitor.
Studying the case,
D&A experts discovered several errors in the procedure of
cancellation and raised the petition to the Ministry controlling the
organ that cancelled the CTR. From this tactical point, the case was
reversed and at the end, the competitor had lost his CTR to favor of
our Client. The example
gives a good picture of how important it is to choose the right
start for every action.
Standard
Stages of Action
against
Trademark Infringement
-
Cease
and Desist :
Claim
:
-
Raids and
seizing : the laws issue power of raid and seizure to NOIP, MC,
EP or CO. The EP is empowered to arresting infringers.
-
Investigation
of site, person, source, route, storage, etc. by the EP
-
Collecting
proofs by the EP and/or the MC/CO
-
Raids and
seizing by the NOIP, MC,
EP or CO, or all of
them at the same time and in consecutive order
-
Official Record
of Infringement
-
Confiscating
or Destroying fake Goods
Claim
:
-
Destroying
and stop producing infringing goods
-
Cutting
off source
for fake goods
-
Announcement
on Mass Media on Result
-
Collecting
legal Evidence for Trial (if any)
-
Administrative
Measures
After action in
point 1, the case should be submitted to a governmental body with
power of administrative measures : the NOIP, MoST, or relevant
Ministries.
Claim
: Administrative punishment (with or without fine) against
infringing entity after stop of infringement;
Note
: Only a few authorities in Vietnam has the power of
deciding a fine, among them are :
-
the
Inspector in Chief from MoST
-
the
Head the General Department of MC and
-
the
Head of the General Department of EP.
-
Redemption
: Decided by the Civil Court
Claim
: Recovery of loses caused by the infringement.
Note :
-
It
is often time and money consuming to pursue legal proceedings.
-
Courts
often refer to NOIP opinions in taking decisions.
-
Proof
and evidence collecting not easy in a poor record system.
|
