Vietnam is enthusiastically working with the World Intellectual Property Organization to do its part in building the global IP ecosystem, an official said last month.  

“Vietnam will continue to work with the World Intellectual Property Organization to develop an inclusive, balanced, and efficient global intellectual property ecosystem that enables innovation and creativity for the benefit of all,” Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Hoang Giang told delegates at WIPO’s 64th series of meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States in Geneva in July.  

Giang pointed out that the challenges facing the world like epidemics, climate change, and food insecurity have been impacting economies and the lives of millions of people around the globe. To solve those problems, it is necessary to continue boosting multilateral cooperation, realizing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and encouraging the development of science, technology and innovation, for which IP is a key tool, VNExpress reported.  

He also touted WIPO initiatives to assist member states, especially those targeting priority groups such as small- and medium-sized enterprises, women, and the young in the use of IP rights as a tool to fuel economic growth, attract investment, create jobs, and improve the community’s life quality, the newspaper reported. 

VNExpress further reported that Giang, in a meeting with WIPO Director General Daren Tang, “expressed his delight at the reinforced cooperation between Vietnam and WIPO, which reflects the Vietnamese Party, State, and Government leaders’ attention to science, technology and innovation, of which IP is an important factor” and “applauded the two sides’ close and fruitful ties in implementing technical cooperation activities such as in the National IP Strategy, the Global Innovation Index, and the Provincial Innovation Index.” 

Vietnam is also promoting an improved environment for intellectual property rights at home, says Le Quang Vinh, a lawyer at Bross & Partners in Hanoi.  

“The Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam has completed and released its Draft Revision to the Law on Organization of the People’s Courts of 2014 (Draft 2.0),” he says. “According to Draft 2.0, one of the most encouraging signals in favour of intellectual property rights holders is that Vietnam, for the first time, has decided to establish IP-specialized courts.” 

In particular, he notes, Article 61 of Draft 2.0 provides that specialized first-instance People’s Courts will be set up, including intellectual property first-instance courts, administrative first-instance courts, and first-instance courts for bankruptcy. Intellectual property first-instance courts have jurisdiction to hear intellectual property cases in accordance with the Civil Procedure Code of 2015. 

“If approved by the National Assembly, the establishment of specialized courts on intellectual property would be further evidence of Vietnam’s strong efforts in implementing its international commitments on the protection of intellectual property rights in Vietnam imposed by new-generation free trade agreements such as the CPTPP, EVFTA & RCEP, of which provisions were transposed into the 2022 Law on intellectual Property,” he said, noting that stakeholders in Vietnam are hopeful that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) will remove Vietnam from the Watch List in its annual Special 301 Report would withdraw Vietnam from the Watch List.  

With this burgeoning interest in intellectual property protection in Vietnam, we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients need today. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of Vietnam’s 50 IP Experts, those lawyers who understand just what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.  

While five powerhouse firms account for 20 of the lawyers on our list, the rest of the list reflects a growing diversity of practices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with lawyers from a number of young and relatively young firms receiving recognition as IP Experts.  

Not surprisingly, Tilleke & Gibbins (Hien Thi Thu Vu, Hung Tuan Nguyen, Linh Thi Mai Nguyen, Loc Xuan Le, Thanh Phuong Vu, Thomas Treutler and Tu Ngoc Trinh) led the way, with seven lawyers on our list. Vision & Associates (Do Quang Hung, Dzung Thi Kim Le, Nguyet Dzung Nguyen and Pham Nghiem Xuan Bac) placed four lawyers on our list. 

Baker McKenzie (Minh Tri Quach, Thi Kieu Hoa Tran and Tran Manh Hung), D&N International (Dang Thi To Hang, Tran T.N. Hoa and Thuy T.H. Dang) and Rouse (Dung Vu, Tue Do and Yen Vu) each placed three lawyers on our list. Twenty-two different firms placed either one or two lawyers on our list.  

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.  

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s Vietnam’s IP Experts. – GREGORY GLASS 

Vietnam’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to in-house counsel in Vietnam, Asia and elsewhere around the world, as well as Southeast Asia-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has 45 years of collective experience in researching and understanding Vietnam’s legal market. 

All private practice intellectual property lawyers in Vietnam were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process. 

The names of our 50 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.