Since joining WTO, Vietnam has been coping to comply with the international commitments in general and intellectual property area in particular. In order to ensure fair legal environment and the benefits of intellectual property right holders, the Vietnam laws provide a number of ways in which holders can apply the following methods to protect their intellectual property rights in Vietnam:Filing Lawsuit to protect intellectual property...

1. Application of Administrative Measures to Protect Intellectual
Property Rights in Vietnam
Since joining WTO, Vietnam has been coping to comply with the international
commitments in general and intellectual property area in particular. In order to ensure fair
legal environment and the benefits of intellectual property right holders, the Vietnam
laws provide a number of ways in which holders can apply the following methods
to protect their intellectual property rights in Vietnam:
Filing Lawsuit to protect intellectual property rights in Vietnam
Negotiation: requesting organizations, individuals committing infringement acts of
intellectual property rights to terminate the infringing acts, apologize, publicly rectify and
compensate damages;
Using administrative remedies: requesting the competent agencies to handle
infringement acts of intellectual property rights;

2. Filing claim at court or arbitration center: initiating a lawsuit at a competent court or
an arbitrator to protect their legitimate rights and interests;
Negotiation is often used in the first step to request the violator to stop the infringement
of intellectual property rights. However, this measure is not potentially effective because
it dependents on goodwill and cooperation of the violator as well as the legal basis,
evidences that you can provide to demonstrate and warn of violating acts.
Relating to the dispute settlements, due to high costs, complicated procedures and
extended time, this measure is not commonly selected as the best treatment.
In Vietnam, intellectual property infringement is mainly dealt with through
administrative measures. Depending on their functions and responsibility, competent
state management agencies deal with infringements of intellectual property rights as per
request of the IP holders Currently, through the following agencies:
Inspectorate of the Ministry of Science and Technology;
Economic Police of the Ministry of Public Security and;
Market management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In case of dealing with infringements of intellectual property rights in Vietnam, the
holders should carry out the following steps:
1.Submission of a written request to terminate an infringement of intellectual
property rights:
This step is optional to save costs for the infringed party as well as deal with the
infringement on the basis of goodwill and cooperation. The infringed party should send
documents, including a persuasive Cease and Desist letter and evidences, to the violator
for the purpose of requesting them to terminate the violation and commit not to repeat the
infringement in the future. In fact, many intellectual property right holders have reached
their goals at this step providing that they can collect enough proof.
2.Requesting the competent state agencies to handle acts of infringement of
intellectual property rights:
In this step, the infringed party must prove both its ownership to the intellectual property
and information, evidence of the infringement by the infringing party.
The application of administrative remedies is effective handled, so it should be preferable
to filling a lawsuit. After requesting the administrative agency to penalize the infringing
party, the right holder still remain their right to initiate a lawsuit in court to claim of

3. damages. Actually, the combination of administrative measures and lawsuits at court
would be more effective for intellectual property right holders.
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