There’s little question that Vietnam has as big of an announcement about its intellectual property regime as we’ve heard in a long, long time.

On June 24, 2024, Vietnam’s National Assembly approved what lawyers at Rouse called “crucial amendments” to the Law on the Organization of People’s Courts (LOPC): the amendments have officially laid the groundwork for the establishment of a specialized IP court, an important step in the development of Vietnam’s IP law.

As reported by Yen Vu, a partner at Rouse, and Khanh Nguyen, a senior associate at the firm, the LOPC’s amendments allow for the establishment of first-instance courts dedicated to specific types of cases, including IP disputes. The amendments include the following provisions, the laywers said, writing on the firm’s website:

• The Supreme People’s Court will develop detailed proposals on the structure, location, and number of these specialized courts. To this end, delegates in the National Assembly’s meeting suggested that initial specialized courts be located in major cities such as Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City.
• These proposals will be further reviewed and approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee, which will also define the jurisdictional scope of the new IP courts. There is some discussion around expanding the jurisdictional scope of the new IP Court to cover matters which are now under the domain of IP Vietnam, as Vietnam looks at IP Courts in neighbouring countries like Thailand and Indonesia for reference.
• The IP Court will handle IP disputes from their jurisdiction at the first-instance level. As the appellate proceedings will be referred to the respective High Court, there may also be an IP division there, too.

“Currently, district courts and high courts in Vietnam handle a broad spectrum of cases without specialization, leading to challenges in providing adequate training for judges on specific subjects, such as IP law,” Vu and Nguyen wrote. “This has often resulted in inconsistent rulings and prolonged case resolutions. A specialized IP court will ensure that judges with the appropriate expertise handle these IP cases, leading to more consistent and sound judgments.”

The lawyers also noted that Vietnam has seen an increase in both the volume and complexity of IP disputes, and an increase in the number of IP infringement cases brought to trial.

“The establishment of the IP court is expected to streamline the resolution of IP disputes,” Vu and Nguyen wrote. “It will provide a dedicated platform for litigating complex IP cases, potentially reducing the backlog and leading to quicker resolutions. This move is also seen as a step towards enhancing the professional capabilities of judges and court officials, ensuring they are well-versed in the nuances of IP law.”

The IP court is expected to be operational in 2025.

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 regional and national powerhouse firms account still account for many of the lawyers on our list, the rest of our list also 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 (Hung Tuan Nguyen, Linh Thi Mai Nguyen, Loc Xuan Le and Michelle Ray-Jones) and Vision & Associates (Pham Nghiem Xuan Bac, Thi Kim Le Dzung, Do Quang Hung and Nguyet Dzung Nguyen) led the way, each with four lawyers on our list.

Baker McKenzie (Minh Tri Quach, Thi Kieu Hoa Tran and Tran Manh Hung) and D&N International (Hang Dang, Hoa Tran and Thuy Dang) each placed three lawyers on our list. Twenty-nine different firms placed either one or two lawyers on our list, an increase from 22 different firms that placed one or two lawyers on our 2023, reflecting growth in quality throughout the Vietnamese legal sector.

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 nearly 50 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 nomination process; there were no fees or 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.